-GORDON, ALEXANDER, 1891, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. XXVII, p. 385.

SERMONS

His sermons are fine specimens of commanding eloquence, and contain many deep and original views of Scripture facts and prophecies.-WILLIAMS, EDWARD, 1800,

The Christian Preacher.

In the evening I read two of Bishop Horsley's sermons upon the Forty-fifth Psalm. There are four, but I had already read the two previous ones. They have a very high reputation in this country, and are undoubtedly discourses of great learning and ingenuity. But they are dogmatical and bigoted; and their object is to inculcate doctrines so odious that I could not believe them if I would. Here are four sermons to explain one psalm, and, if the Bishop's exposition is correct, the psalm has been waiting three thousand years to be made at last intelligible by him. ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY, 1817, Journal, April 12; Memoirs, ed. C. F. Adams, vol. III, p. 498.

As a

Confining our view to Horsley in his literary character, I must say that he is far beyond the reach of Dr. Parr's hostility. As a polematic and a champion of his own Church, he was above the competition of any contemporary divine. theologian, he reconciled the nearly contradictory merits of novelty and originality with well-meditated orthodoxy; and I may venture to assert that his "Sermons" produced a greater impression than any English book of pure divinity for the last century. In saying this, I do not speak of the sale; what that might be I know not; I speak of the strength of the impression diffused through the upper circles, as apparent in the reverential terms which, after the appearance of that work, universally marked the sense of cultivated men in speaking of Bishop Horsley-even of those who had previously viewed him with some dislike in his character of controversialist.-DE QUINCEY, THOMAS, 183157, Dr. Samuel Parr, Collected Writings, ed. Masson, vol. v, p. 32.

Lord Chancellor Thurlow, being detained by a thunderstorm at a country inn, and asking the hostess whether she had any books in the house, is said to have tossed aside the Bible she brought him, and to have sworn at Horsley's "Sermons,"

which last, however, to cure idleness by short distraction, his lordship began to read, and was so enthralled by the unknown divine that he read on, long after the rain was over, and carried it with him to the carriage steps-whence he threw the book back to the hostess, wishing he might be

something unpleasant if he didn't make that fellow a bishop; and he was as good as his word.-JACOX, FRANCIS, 1872, Enthralling Books, Aspects of Authorship, p. 338.

GENERAL

It is most sincerely regretted by me, that the dispositions of Bishop Horsley should have been warped either by pride, ambition, or selfishness, to such an excessive obliquity as displays itself throughout his writings. The native vigour of his faculties, his various knowledge, his elegant and nervous style, and his ingenuity of invention might have been happily employed to the advancement of science, and

to the confirmation and recommendation of the Christianity of the Scriptures.WAKEFIELD, GILBERT, 1792, Memoirs Written by Himself.

It is not a little extraordinary that Bishop Horsley, the apologist of tyranny, the patron of passive obedience, should affect to admire the British constitution, whose freedom was attained by a palpable violation of the principles for which he contends. Whatever bears the semblance of "reasoning," in Bishop Horsley's discourse, will be found, I trust, to have received a satisfactory answer; but to animadvert with a becoming severity on the temper it displays, is a less easy task. To render him the justice he deserves in that respect would demand all the fierceness of his character. It is time to turn from this disgusting picture of sanctimonious hypocrisy and priestly insolence, to address a word to the reader on the following pamphlet. The political sentiments of Dr. Horsley are in truth of too little consequence in themselves to engage a moment's curiosity, and deserve attention only as they indicate the spirit of the times.-HALL, ROBERT, 1793, An Apology for the Freedom of the Press, Preface.

In my opinion, the controversy so ably maintained by this learned Prelate against the Heresiarch Priestley, is his peculiar praise. Bishop Horsley reminds me of the

He has

celebrated Divine, Charles Leslie. often the same strength, the same acuteness, and sometimes the same coarseness of manner. But the argument is cogent, and the arms are irresistible. In theological controversy, Charles Leslie and Bishop Horsley always appear to me, "Eacidæ similes, Vulcaniaque arma capessunt."-MATHIAS, THOMAS JAMES, 1797, The Pursuits of Literature, Eighth ed., p. 412.

Much original, deep, devout, and evangelical matter, with much that is bold, hazardous, speculative, and rash. Bishop Horsley's powers of mind were of a high order; and his sermons and his other works will render assistance to the student chiefly in the way of criticism. He had the integrity and candour to speak decidedly against the ignorance of many who opposed what they called Calvinistic views. -BICKERSTETH, EDWARD, 1844, Christian Student.

The

Horsley was a man of a masculine mind, great learning, and quick intelligence. He was also master of a clear style and much power of logical argumentation. His attack upon Priestley was a very damaging one.—PERRY, GEORGE G., 1864, The History of the Church of England, vol. III, p. 434.

Horsley had an arrogance and dogmatism even fiercer than Warburton's, without anything like Warburton's genius for style. His sermons procured him respect from many that disapproved of his violence as a polemic; they are distinguished by breadth of view and clear racy expression. -MINTO, WILLIAM, 1872-80, Manual of English Prose Literature, p. 469.

As a critic and scholar, he had few equals; and his disquisitions on the prophets Isaiah and Hosea, his translation of the Psalms, and his "Biblical Criticisms" (in four volumes), justly entitled him to the honour of the mitre. His "Sermons," in three volumes, are about the best in the language: clear, nervous, and profound,

he entered undauntedly upon the most difficult subjects, and dispelled, by research and argument, the doubt that hung over several passages of Scripture.CHAMBERS, ROBERT, 1876, Cyclopædia of English Literature, ed. Carruthers.

In Horsley we may find an example of what religious writing became in the latter part of the century, earnest and conscientious, rich in scholarship and robust in thought, but moving rather with judicial formality and dignified reverence than by any instinct of enthusiastic piety.-CRAIK, HENRY, 1895, ed., English Prose, Introduction, vol. IV, p. 6.

As a master of English prose Samuel Horsley had few equals in his own day. The reputation he gained among his contemporaries and their immediate successors was quite out of proportion to the bulk of his writings, but not at all out of proportion to their merits. He was in fact regarded in the early part of the nineteenth century as, in point of abilities and attainments, far above all other writers and speakers on the side of the Church. Men of the most widely differing sentiments agree in this. He writes in a

remarkably pure, luminous, and dignified style; his matter is weighty, his argumentative power convincing, his learning profound, and his satire, though always kept within the bounds of decency and courtesy, most cutting. There is a robustness and manliness about his tone of mind which is reflected in his style; he takes a lofty line, which some might think supercilious, but it is certainly justified by his merits; it is that of a judge summing up, not that of an advocate pleading his cause. His sentiments are always those of the marked high churchman, and in many points he anticipates the men of the Oxford movement. His sermons are the finest specimens of pulpit eloquence which the age produced, and they are still unrivalled in their way. —OVERTON, J. H., 1895, English Prose, ed. Craik, vol. IV, pp. 447, 448.

PERSONAL

But every one, whether of sad or gay temperament, must regret that the tone of melancholy which pervades Mrs. Smith's compositions was derived too surely from the circumstances and feelings of the amiable authoress. We are indeed, informed by Mrs. Dorset that the natural temper of her sister was lively and playful; but it must be considered that the works on which she was obliged, often reluctantly, to labour, were seldom undertaken from free choice. Nothing saddens the heart so much as that sort of literary labour which depends upon the imagination, when it is undertaken unwillingly, and from a sense of compulsion. The galley-slave may sing when he is unchained, but it would be uncommon equanimity which could induce him to do so when he is actually bound to his oar. If there is a mental drudgery which lowers the spirits and lacerates the nerves, like the toil of the slave, it is that which is exacted by literary composition when the heart is not in unison with the work upon which the head is employed. Add to the unhappy author's task, sickness, sorrow, or the pressure of unfavourable circumstances, and the labour of the bondsman becomes light in comparison.-SCOTT, SIR WALTER, 1823? CHARLOTTE SMITH, Miscellanies.

SONNETS

I did not see Charlotte Smith's "Sonnets" until after I had published my own; but when I met with them they filled me with delight, and to this day I equally admire them.-BRYDGES, SIR SAMUEL EGERTON, 1834, Autobiography, vol. I, p. 63.

I will, however, first prelude my examples from her by two sonnets from an earlier writer, Charlotte Smith, whose productions in this stanza are not only numerous, but of such elegance and merit as to command the homage of all who are interested in the history of its growth and development. DESHLER, CHARLES D., 1879, Afternoons With the Poets, p. 253.

The unmitigable woe with which Mrs. Smith's poems are filled, together with

their factitious and second-hand phraseology, renders them unpalatable to a generation so much healthier than that in which they were produced; yet we must respect the opinion of so admirable a critic as Wordsworth, who described her as a "a lady to whom English verse is under greater obligations than are likely to be either acknowledged or remembered." "She wrote little," he continues, "and that little unambitiously, but with true feeling for rural Nature, at a time when Nature was not much regarded by English Poets; for in point of time her earlier writings preceded, I believe, those of Cowper and Burns." Her Sonnets, about which some of their old sweetness still lingers, like the perfume of dried flowers, have been repeatedly praised by Dyce.MAIN, DAVID M., 1879, ed., A Treasury of English Sonnets, p. 358.

When Bowles first published his sonnets he was accused of having imitated those of Charlotte Smith. In what high estimation this lady's work was still held nearly thirty years after her death, may be gathered from the fact that the late Rev. Alexander Dyce included no fewer than nine of her sonnets in his Selection, whereas he only gives one by Keats, and entirely omits those of Shelley and Byron.—WADDINGTON, SAMUEL, 1882, English Sonnets by Poets of the Past, p. 229.

GENERAL

A lady to whom English verse is under greater obligations than are likely to be either acknowledged or remembered. She wrote little, and that little unambitiously, but with true feeling for rural Nature, at a time when Nature was not much regarded by English Poets; for in point of time her earlier writings preceded, I believe, those of Cowper and Burns.- WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM, 1833, St. Bees' Heads, note.

Some of her novels will last, and her sonnets with them, each perhaps aided by the other. There is nothing great in her; but she is natural and touching, and has hit, in the music of her sorrows, upon some of those chords, which have been awakened.

equally, though not so well, in all human bosoms.-HUNT, LEIGH, 1847, British Poetesses, Men, Women and Books, vol. II, p. 119.

Did you ever read any of Charlotte Smith's novels? Except that they want cheerfulness, nothing can exceed the beauty of the style. Whenever Erskine had a great speech to make he used to read her works, that he might catch their grace of composition. -MITFORD, MARY RUSSELL, 1854, To Mrs. Jennings, Nov. 29; Life, ed. L'Estrange, vol. II, p. 358.

Her poetical compositions are distinguished by an easy grace. A sweet melancholy, never morbid though settled, but chastened by a hopeful piety, sheds a touching charm over her verses. She had a keen perception of natural beauty, and her descriptions of rural scenery or cultivated gardens are ever true and full of sentiment. Some of her sonnets are among the best of the second class in our language, and a volume of them, we are told, "passed through eleven editions, besides being translated into French and Italian." We have given a longer sketch of this interesting lady than of some others, because her writings, though marked with elegance, judgment and natural beauty, have fallen into such undeserved neglect, that they are rarely found except in libraries of collectors.BETHUNE, GEORGE WASHINGTON, 1848, The British Female Poets.

Few women have ever possessed greater advantages of capacity and ability, of

naturally great scope, comprising the high imaginative power of an inborn poet, with the accuracy of detail and sound common sense which constitute the woman of business and worldly wisdom. To her belonged also that attribute of noble natures, pervading sincerity; the thoughts and feelings of her every-day existence being the opinions and sentiments of her prose and poetry. There is that charm in her poetry which belongs only to genius. The tone is too monotonous, the spirit too querulous; it wants the exulting and exalting notes of the caroller who soars to the skies and dwells blissfully in the turf, yet it has a sort of ravishment like the nightingale's strains, ever pleasing though plaintive.-WILLIAMS, JANE, 1861, The Literary Women of England, p. 224.

She was among the most prolific novelists of her time, but only one work, "The Old Manor House," enjoyed more than a passing reputation, or has any claim to particular mention here. The chief merit of Charlotte Smith's novels lies in their descriptions of scenery, an element only just entering into the work of the novelist. -TUCKERMAN, BAYARD, 1882, A History of English Prose Fiction, p. 257.

As a novelist she shows skill in portraying character, but the deficiencies of the plots render her novels tedious. Her English style is good.-LEE, ELIZABETH, 1898, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. LIII, p. 29.