chap. xxxix. 7.: 'When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street;' according to the custom of those times of great men sitting at the gate of the city to decide causes. The subscription on a tablet beneath his feet, An. atat. circiter LXX. Quis mihi tribuat? mark it out as the quaint device of a man in years who thought himself neglected." Garth and Swift have mentioned Wesley with contempt; and Pope introduced him in the Dunciad, in company with Watts. Both names were erased in the subsequent editions. Pope felt ashamed of having spoken injuriously of such a man as Dr. Watts, who was entitled not only to high respect for his talents, but to admiration for his innocent and holy life; and he had become intimate with Samuel Wesley the younger. That excellent man exerted himself in every way to assist his father, when the latter had lost all hope of the preferment which he once had reason to expect. "Time," says Mr. Badcock, had so far gotten the better of his fury against Sir Robert, (Walpole,) as to change the satirist into the suppliant. I have seen a copy of verses addressed to the great Minister, in behalf of his poor and aged parent. But I have seen something much better. I have in my possession a letter of this poor and aged parent, addressed to his son Samuel, in which he gratefully acknowledges his filial duty in terms so affecting, that I am at a loss which to admire most, the gratitude of the parent, or the affection and generosity of the child. It was written when the good old man was nearly fourscore, and so weakened by a palsy as to be incapable of directing a pen, unless with his left hand. I preserve it as a curious memorial of what will make Wesley applauded when his wit is forgotten." Literary Anecdotes, vol. v. p. 220. The only works of the elder Wesley which I have met with, are the two following, which were probably his most successful publications. The History of the Old Testament in Verse, with one hundred and eighty Sculptures, in two volumes, dedicated to her most sacred Majesty. Vol. i. From the Creation to the Revolt of the Ten Tribes from the House of David. Vol. ii. From that Revolt to the End of the Prophets.-Written by Samuel Wesley, A. M. Chaplain to his Grace John, Duke of Buckingham and Marquis of Normandy, Author of the Life of Christ, an Heroic Poem. The Cuts done by J. Sturt, London: Printed for Cha. Harper, at the Flower-de-luce, over-against St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet-street. 1704. 12mo. The History of the New Testament, representing the Actions and Miracles of our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles; attempted in Verse, and adorned with 152 Sculptures. Written by Samuel Wesley, A. M. Chaplain to the Most Honourable the Lord Marquis of Normandy, and Author of the Life of Christ, an Heroic Poem. The Cuts done by J. Sturt. London: printed for Cha. Harper, at the Flower-de-luce, over-against St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet-street. 1701. 12mo. The elder Wesley had a clerk, who was a Whig, like his master, and a Poet also, of a very original kind. "One Sunday, immediately after Sermon, he said, with an audible voice, Let us sing to the praise and glory of God, a hymn of my own composing. It was short and sweet, and ran thus; King William is come home, come home, King William home is come! Therefore let us together sing The hymn that's call'd Te D'um." Wesley's Remarks on Mr. Hill's Farrago Double Distilled, THE END. |