earl of Rochester, who paid him a visit at Croydon. By their influence he was made tutor to the sons of sir Edward Thurlow, with whom he lived till 1680. At this time he was engaged upon his "Satires upon the Jesuits," which appeared in 1679, when the excitement in regard to the so-called "Popish plot" was at its height. They are full of bitterness and Protestant rancor, and gained for Oldham a high reputation. --PECK, HARRY THURSTON, 1898. ed., The International Cyclopædia, vol. x, p. 756. PERSONAL His person was tall and thin, which was much owing to a consumptive complaint, but was greatly increased by study; his face was long, his nose prominent, his aspect unpromising, but satire was in his eye.-THOMPSON, EDWARD, 1770, The Compositions in Prose and Verse of Mr. John Oldham, to which are added Memoirs of his Life. GENERAL Farewell, too little and too lately known, Cast in the same Poetick mould with mine. Thy generous fruits, though gather'd e're Still shew'd a quickness; and maturing time But mellows what we write to the dull sweets of Rhime. Once more, hail and farewel; farewel you But ah! too short, Marcellus of our Tongue; -DRYDEN, JOHN, 1684, To the Memory Inspir'd above, and could command each Had all the Wit without the Affectation. Oldham is a very indelicate writer: he has strong rage, but it is too much like Billingsgate.-POPE, ALEXANDER, 1728 30, Spence's Anecdotes, ed. Singer, p. 14. the most extravagant caricature that ever was drawn, and is incomparably more outré than the Menalcas of Bruyere. GRANGER, JAMES, 1769-1824, Biographical History of England, vol. v, p. 251. He is spirited and pointed; but his versification is too negligent, and his subjects temporary.-HALLAM, HENRY, 183739, Introduction to the Literature of Europe, pt. iv, ch. v, par. 47. I have been looking over the poems of Oldham, which are now little read. I have never seen the book in any private library in this country; and yet a poet whom Dryden warmly commended, and from whom Pope and Swift and Johnson did not disdain to borrow, cannot be entirely unworthy of attention in an age which has produced so many eminent poets as that in which we live. Although Oldham in his lifetime achieved his fame by what he wrote as a satirist, his principal talent as a poet was not for satire. His odes show that he possessed a genuine poetic enthusiasm, which appears through all his negligence of versification and diction, and often finds expression in majestic imagery and flowing numbers. He is no artist in his vocation. Dryden is our witness that he had not well learned "the numbers of his native tongue." He has none of those happy turns of thought and expression which the practiced and expert author attains by skilful search or resolute waiting: what he has, came to him in the glow of rapid composition; and these so often that few poets can boast of so illustrious a train of imitators. His rhymes are marvellously bad indeed, it is often amusing to see what distant resemblances of sound he is content to accept as substitutes for rhymes. BRYANT, WILLIAM CULLEN, 1872, Oldham's Poems, Prose Writings, vol. I, pp. 115, 127. The satires of Oldham are distressing to read; the author has no belief in the better part of human nature; he is cynical and bitter to the extreme, and he strikes, not for a party, like Marvell, but wildly, against the world. It is perhaps against the world. Oldham is the Ajax He appears to have been no enemy to the fashionable vices of this reign; and as he was of a very different turn from his father, the character of the old parson, at the end of his works, is supposed to have been designed for him. It is perhaps among our satirists, and his own contemporaries, not easily moved by personal characteristics, were touched by his strange cold frenzy, his honourable isolation, and his early death. Dryden seems to have been genuinely distressed at the fate of a young man whose personal acquaintance he had but lately formed, and whose work had a character particularly attractive to him. Oldham's versification is better than that of Marvell, in his satires, but still rugged; as Dryden observed, his prosody needed mellowing.GOSSE, EDMUND, 1888, A History of Eighteenth Century Literature, 1660-1780, p.30. a respectful distance around the all-illumining orb of Dryden. GARNETT, RICHARD, 1895, The Age of Dryden, pp. 42, 46. Oldham's productions deserve more notice than they have received. Their ownoriginal power is notable. Pope, and perhaps other of our chief eighteenthcentury poets, were under important literary obligations to their author. . Whether or no the Pindaric dedicated by Oldham "to the memory of my dear friend, Mr. Charles Morwent,' "in date of composition preceded his most celebrated "Satires," it must be described as the most finished product of his genius, and as entitled to no mean place in English "In Memoriam" poetry. Cowley is evidently the master followed in this ode. While in "original" satire Oldham cannot be said to have reached the length to which he was desirous of climbing, he is memorable in our poetic literature as one of the predecessors of Pope in the "imitative" or adapting species of satirical and didactic verse. WARD, ADOLPHUS WILLIAM, 1895, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. XLII, p. 109. John Owen 1616-1683 John Owen, Puritan, born at Stadhampton vicarage, Oxfordshire, in 1616, took his B. A. in 1631 from Queen's College, Oxford, and in 1637 was driven from Oxford by dislike to Laud's statues. Some years he spent as private chaplain; then in 1642 he removed to London, and published "The Display of Arminianism," a work for which he was rewarded with the living of Fordham in Essex. In 1646 he removed to Coggeshall, and showed his preference for Independency over Presbyterianism. Cromwell carried him in 1649 as his chaplain to Ireland, where he regulated the affairs of Trinity College. Next year (1650) he went with Cromwell to Scotland. In 1651-52 he became dean of Christ Church and vice-chancellor of Oxford University. Here he wrote his "Diatriba de Divina Justita," his "Doctrine of the Saints' Perseverance," his "Vindicia Evangelicæ," and his "Mortification of Sin in Believers." He was one of the Friers appointed to purge the church of scandalous ministers. He opposed the giving the crown to the Protector, and the year after Cromwell's death he was ejected from his deanery. He purchased an estate at Stadham, and formed a congregation. The writings of this period are "Communion with God," "On the Divine Original of the Scriptures," "Theologoumena," and a diatribe against Walton's "Polyglot." These were followed by works on "Indwelling Sin," on the 130th Psalm, and on the Epistle to the Hebrews, the last his greatest work. In 1673 he became pastor in Leadenhall Street. Late publications were "Concerning the Holy Spirit" (1674), "Justification by Faith" (1677), and "Christologia." He wrote replies to a Franciscan and to Bishop Parker, sustained controversies with Sherlock and Stillingfleet, and to the end preached and wrote incessantly. He died 24th August 1683. See Orme's "Memoirs" (1820), and "Life" by Thomson, prefixed to Goold's edition of Owen's works (1850-55).--PATRICK AND GROOME, eds., 1897, Chambers's Biographical Dictionary, p. 712. PERSONAL Was a person well skill'd in the tongues, rabinical learning, Jewish rites and customs; that he had a great command of his English pen, and was one of the most genteel and fairest writers, who have appeared against the Church of England, as handling his adversaries with far more civil, decent and temperate language than many of his fiery brethren, and by confining himself wholly to the cause without the unbecoming mixture of personal slanders and reflection.-WOOD, ANTHONY, 16911721, Athena Oxonienses, vol. II, f. 740. On the 4th September a vast funeral procession, including the carriages of sixty-seven noblemen and gentlemen, with long trains of mourning coaches and horsemen, took the road to Finsbury; and there in a new burying-ground, within a few paces of Goodwin's grave, and near the spot where, five years later, John Bunyan was interred, they laid the dust of Dr. Owen.-HAMILTON, JAMES, 1857-59, ed., Our Christian Classics, vol. II, p. 9. GENERAL This book ["Exposition"] bears the same rank, and has the same relation to the study of divinity, which the "Principia" of Sir Isaac Newton bears to the true system of the world in the study of natural philosophy; and it is of equal importance to all young divines which that great man's work is to young philosophers. I am ashamed of my countrymen for their ignorance of this incomparable work, perhaps the very greatest of the kind that ever was written by a British divine; and it now lies buried in dust amidst the lumber of a bookseller's garret, whilst a thousand volumes of wretched trash in divinity, with their pompous bindings, stand as monuments of human folly in our bookcases and libraries.RYLAND, JOHN, 1781, ed. Cotton Mather's Student and Preacher, Select Library for a Student of Divinity. If the theological student should part with his coat or his bed to procure the works of Howe, he that would not sell his shirt to procure those of John Owen, and especially his "Exposition," of which every sentence is precious, shews too much regard to his body, and too little for his immortal mind.-BOGUE AND BENNETT, 1809-12, History of Dissenters, from the Revolution in 1688 to the year 1808. Spiritual life is the vital energy which pervades the morality and the practice recommended by Owen. It is not the abstraction of a mystical devotion, like that of Fenelon or Law; nor is it the enthusiastic raptures of a Zinzendorf; but the evangelical piety of Paul and the heavenly affection of John. For every practice, mortification, and feeling, Owen assigns a satisfactory, because a scriptural, reason. The service which he recommends is uniformly a reasonable service; and to every required exertion he brings an adequate and constraining motive. In examining the practical writings of such men as Hall and Taylor and Tillotson, we miss the rich vein of evangelical sentiment and that constant reference to the living principle of Christianity which are never lost sight of in Owen. They abound in excellent directions, in rich materials for selfexamination and self-goverment; but they do not state with sufficient accuracy the connexion between gracious influence and its practical results, from which all that is excellent in human conduct must proceed. They appear as the anatomists of the skin and the extremities: Owen is the anatomist of the heart. He dissects it with remarkable sagacity, tracing out its course and turnings in every path that leads from integrity, and marking the almost imperceptible steps which conduct. to atrocious sins.-ORME, WILLIAM, 1820, Memoirs of the Life, Writings and Religious Connections of John Owen. His devotional, and practical, and expository works are an invaluable treasure of divinity. . His writings are eminently spiritual, devotional, and edifying. He is full of Biblical learning, sound exposition of doctrine, acuteness, and information. His controversial writings against the Socinians and Papists, on the question of Justification, on the Jewish Questions, Sabbath, &c., are valuable and important. There is hardly any modern controversy that he has not well digested and furnished matter for the defence of the truth. He gives expanded and rich views of the fulness of the go spel.-BICKERSTETH, EDWARD, 1844, The Christian Student, pp. 268, 269. The publication and sale of two complete editions of his works in upwards of twenty volumes, and during one generation, attests the estimate in which his writings are held by general readers. It may be added that theologically Owen is more Calvinistic than Calvin, and that he was one of the first in England to teach the doctrine of a restricted Atonement. ANGUS, JOSEPH, 1865, The Handbook of English Literature, p. 431. Owen was a man of great learning, and his industry was prodigious. His works fill twenty-four volumes large octavo. The two of most enduring character are the Commentary on the Hebrews, and the work on the Holy Spirit. Owen did not cultivate the graces of style, but there is always robustness and strength in his argument. He discussed whatever subject he undertook as if he intended to have nothing to be said by those who should come after him. With all the progress made since his time in the science of criticism and exegesis, no prudent commentator, even now, would undertake to expound the Epistle to the Hebrews without a constant reference to the work of Owen. In his writings of a practical character, he had a peculiarity, beyond all the other great writers of his school, of making his pious emotion dependent in all cases upon some solid scriptural basis. HART, JOHN S., 1872, A Manual of English Literature, p. 178. Owen ranks with Baxter and Howe among the most eminent of puritan divines. A trenchant controversialist, he distinguished himself no less by temperateness of tone than by vigour of polemic. His learning was vast, various, and profound, and his mastery of calvinistic theology complete. On the other hand, his style is somewhat tortuous and his method unduly discursive, so that his works are often tedious reading.-RIGG, J. M., 1895, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. XLII, p. 427. Algernon Sidney 1622-1682 Born at Penshurst, Kent, England, about 1622: beheaded at London, Dec. 7, 1683. An English politician and patriot, younger son of the second Earl of Leicester. He served in the Parliamentary army, being wounded at Marston in 1644; was in 1645 elected to Parliament, where he took rank as one of the leaders of the Independents; became governor of Dublin and lieutenant-general of horse in Ireland 1646; became councilor of state in 1659; was peace commissioner between Denmark and Sweden 1659-60; lived on the Continent after the Restoration until 1677; and, being known to be a supporter of Monmouth, was arrested on the discovery of the Rye House Plot (with which he had no connection) in June, 1683, and condemned to death for high treason. He wrote "Discourses Concerning Government" (1698), etc.-SMITH, BENJAMIN E., 1894-97, The Century Cyclopedia of Names, p. 930. PERSONAL All who come from Paris commend Algernon for a huge deal of wit and much sweetness of nature.-LEICESTER, COUNTESS OF, 1636, Letter, Nov. 10. When he came on the scaffold, instead of a speech, he told them onely that he had made his peace with God, that he came not thither to talk, but to die; put a paper into the sheriff's hand, and another into a friend's, sayd one prayer as short as a grace, laid down his neck, and bid the executioner do his office. EVELYN, JOHN, 1683, Diary, Dec. 5. A man of the most extraordinary courage a steady man even to obstinacy sincere, but of a rough and boisterous temper that could not bear contradiction. He seemed to be a Christian, but in a peculiar form of his own; he thought it was to be like a divine philosophy in the mind; but he was against all public worship and everything that looked like a church. He was stiff to all republican principles, and such an enemy to everything that looked like monarchy, that he set himself in a high opposition against Cromwell when he was made protector. He had studied the history of government in all its branches beyond any man I ever knew. . . . Sidney had a particular way of insinuating himself into people that would hearken to his notions, and not contradict him. BURNET, GILBERT, 171534, History of My Own Time. The production of papers, containing speculative opinions upon government and liberty, written long before, and perhaps never even intended to be published, together with the use made of those papers, in considering them as a substitute for the second witness to the overt act, exhibited such a compound of wickedness and nonsense as is hardly to be paralleled in the history of juridical tyranny. But the validity of pretences was little attended to at that time, in the case of a person whom the court had devoted to destruction, and upon evidence such as has been stated was this great and excellent man condemned to die. FOX, CHARLES JAMES, 1806? A History of the Early Part of the Reign of James II. The manifest iniquity of this sentence upon Algernon Sidney, as well as the high courage he displayed throughout these last scenes of his life, have inspired a sort of enthusiasm for his name, which neither what we know of his story, nor the opinion of his contemporaries, seems altogether to warrant. The crown of martyrdom should be suffered perhaps to exalt every virtue, and efface every defect, in patriots, as it has often done in saints. In the faithful mirror of history Sidney may lose something of this lustre. He possessed no doubt a powerful, active, and undaunted mind, stored with extensive reading on the topics in which he delighted. But having proposed one only object for his political conduct, the establishment of a republic in England, his pride and inflexibility, though they gave a dignity to his character, rendered his views narrower and his temper unaccommodating. HALLAM, HENRY, 1827-41, modating.-HALLAM, The Constitutional History of England, vol, II, ch. xii. Errors may well be passed over in silence and his faults forgotten, where so much remains to be admired and venerated. One of the noblest martyrs of that liberty which the progress of civilization and the developments of time seem to point out as the heritage of the AngloSaxon race. His were virtues which deserve immortality, and his a name which will go down with honor to remote generations of men. The man dies, the principles he cherished are immortal. That cause for which Sidney suffered, proscribed in his day, has been gloriously vindicated in ours. The doctrines of resistance to oppression of popular sovereignty of the inalienable right of mankind to intellectual and moral, to civil and religious freedom-of which he was the champion in life, and in death the martyr, have become the foundation and corner stone of those democratic institutions which since his day have sprung up in the New World. No nobler cenotaph than the free institutions of America can be reared to the memory of the dust which sleeps in its ancestral vault at Penshurst. No more glorious epitaph can be written for the patriot martyr than that which so eloquently speaks in the silent workings of those institutions. Surely while they endure, and while the doctrines which Sidney taught shall continue to be regarded as the elementary truths of our political creed, it may with truth be said that the noble blood shed in their defence on Tower Hill, has not been spilled in vain. -VAN SANTVOORD, G., 1851, Life of Algernon Sidney, p. 333. He lived through most critical times. He was an actor in events which affected the whole of Europe. He was a keen and shrewd observer of men and characters. He was a student and an author. He had a remarkable individuality. His friends and his enemies-he had most of the latter-alike bear witness to the power he exercised over the minds of all with whom he was brought into contact. There is, however, always something strange in the way they speak of him. The affection of his friends is but loving admiration; the opposition of his enemies is always admiring fear. He is a noble-minded, hardworking patriot, and a pure-souled and thoroughly honourable man of the world. He died under an unjust sentence, at perhaps the darkest period of our English history; but what gives him a claim on our interest and sympathy to a far greater extent is the fact of his suffering injustice throughout an almost blameless life. -BLACKBURNE, GERTRUDE M. IRELAND, 1884, Algernon Sidney, a Review, p. 1. GENERAL They ["Discourses"] are admirably written, and contain great historical knowledge and a remarkable propriety of diction; so that his name, in my opinion, ought to be much higher established in the temple of literature than I have hitherto found it placed.-BOYLE, JOHN (LORD ORRERY), 1751, Remarks on the Life and Writings of Dr. Jonathan Swift. |