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World Affairs Institute

Influence of the Christian Religion on Poetry,in the Christian Spectator for June 1834.Art. IIIAmerican Advocate of Peace (1834-1836), Vol. 1, No. 3 (DECEMBER, 1834), pp. 138-141

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138 Influence of theChristian Religion onPoetry. [Dec.

Article III.CRITICAL NOTICES.

BY THE EDITOR.1.?Influence of theChristianReligion onPoetry,?in theChristian

Spectator or June 1834. Art. III.The special object of thisdepartment fourwork is thepromotion

of a pure and Christian literature, in respect toWar and kindredsubjects, by the application of just and Christian principles to thecriticism of current publications. Still, however, as our readers

will have observed, our notices have not been exclusively critical,in the strict sense of the term. It comes within our scope, andcertainly gives. us great pleasure, to mark the progress of justthinking-?to signalize the manifestations of a better spirit in literature?and to make our pages a repository of the choicest thingsthat are scattered here and there in the various works that comeout, so far as they can be transferred, and as our limits will permit?That thespecial efforts f the lovers of peace and humanityhavenot been without effect, nd that their principles are silently butsurelyand increasinglygaining ground,must,we think, e obviousto any one who is observant of our literature, particularly thosedepartments f itwhich most immediately influence nd reflect hetone of the public mind. The cause of universal peace is unquestionably beginning to awaken more attention and to excite moreinterest. A justerandmore Christian styleof thinking nd feelingin regard to the true character of war and its concomitants, beginstomanifest itselfdecisively in various quarters of thewide fieldofgeneral literature.In theChristian Spectator forJune,containingthearticlewhosetitlewe have given above, we find the followingadmirable andeloquentpassage. After showingthe influence fChristianityuponpoetry in respect tomythology and machinery, the writer goes onto observe that :

"The influenceof Christianity tends to destroy another greattheme of poetry. Its spirit is peace. It breathes harmony andlove,and aims tobring together in appropriate union, all thewild

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1834.] Influence of theChristian Religion onPoetry. 139and jarring elements of thisworld ; and warrants theanticipationof that blessed future, when we shall no more hear the confusednoise of battle,or behold garments rolled in blood. The object ofpoetry is to please, to instruct, and to deepen our social interest inexistence. Is war, then, a fit subject for poetry ? The muse mayweep,?she has often, like David, poured forth her bitter lamentations over the slain with inimitablepathos. But what theme ofpleasurable poetrydoes the strife fwar or a fieldofdeath present?We feel that there is an awful delusion on thissubject,arising fromearly associations, and strengthened by the whole course of oureducation. We need only turn to Kames' Sketches of man, tolearn the sentiments of thousands on this subject. 'War,' he says,6is necessary for man, as the school of magnanimity, heroism, andevery virtue that ennobles human nature. Without it, he wouldrival thehare intimidity ' We confess thatwe cannot read suchsentiments without feeling a glow of indignation. War necessarytor man ! A sentiment, indeed, worthy of one who had learnedhis philosophy in the school of Racine and Voltaire, and whichshould place its author back a thousand years before the Christianera. How often, too, has the historian thrown his enchanting butdeceptive colors over this subject ; prostitutinghis noble talents,bowing before kings and warriors, while he has passed in silencesome of the most splendid creations of genius ! Volumes, for example, he has for the ' petty freaks and quarrels of Leicester andEssex, in the timeofElizabeth, but not a solitary page forShakspeare.'" To many there seems something noble in 6the pomp and circumstance of glorious war ;' something sublime in the onset ofbattles, as the contending legions meet and dash against each other ;something generous and God-like in the ardor of that chivalrousfeelingwhich glows in the hour of danger. We need not say thatthisfeeling ispowerfully invigoratedby theglowing descriptions fthe historian and the poet, in their apotheosis of the warrior. Tous, however, there is no poetry in such scenes. There are toomany painful associations connected with them. We cannot confineour imagination o theglories thatencircle the individualhero ;our minds revert to the scene where his ovation was purchased,?the ensangnined plain,-?and dwell upon the thousands that havefallen under his victorious car." Let us look at this subject in the light f sober,Christian philosophy. Let us survey thusthefieldofWaterloo, that

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140 Influence of the Christian Religion onPoetry. [Dec.the complaints of the vanquished, and the prayers of the dying.One is calling upon heaven toprotecthis children another ravesfor a beloved wife ; a thirdtenderlybreathes a beloved name, consecrated only by that tie ; while othersdeprecate theirown suffering, or plead piteously for the pardon of their sins. There arethosewho pray ardently for death, and otherswho implore fewminutesmore of life. Some make complaintsof bodily pain, someof thegnawings of the never-dyingworm ; while others,as theygaze upon the fast-flowing crimson torrent, waste the brief remainsof breath inmoralizing upon the shortness of life, and man's careless prodigalityof existence. The eyes of all wander wistfullyover the scene that is fast fading from theirview ; and ferventlydo theygrasp the* and of thosewho aremournfully bidding therna lastfarewell.' Surely there is something inall this toounnaturalfor a poetic theme ! somethingtoohumiliating ; somethingwhichgivesman with all his boasted sensibilityand elevation of soul, asuperiority, on the score of ferocity, over the lion which roamsthrough the desert,or the shark which ranges the ocean. Thelion preys upon the antelope, the tigerhowls in unison with hisbrothers of blood ; butman, when about to exhibit the greatnessof his soul,, and furnish to after ages a theme for poetry, is aimingto destroyhis fellow-man, nd by 'thewisdom of thedeep-laid plan,and the success of its execution, to gain immortal honors from thehistorian nd thepoet ! Let no one talk of the 6pomp and circumstance of glorious war.'. Such are the awful consequences connectedwith thatpomp and circumstance. We might aswell undertaketo separate the lightning's ivid flash from the riving thunder-bolt,as to dissociate in the mind of a benevolent man, the horrors of thebattle-field romtheglories of the individual onqueror." Is war, then,the themeofpleasure?the object ofpoetry?Weblush forpoor,degraded humannature ! Our hearts sicken at thevery thought Well may we exclaim, with the anointed bard,6Lord, what isman !'"War isnot only an unfitsubject for poetry,but itprostratesthe spiritof song. The causes of the relapse of poetry, afterChaucer, as Campbell remarks, 'seem but too apparent in the annals ofEnglish history,which, during five reigns in the 15thcenturycontinue todisplay but a tissue of conspiracies, proscriptions,and bloodshed. War agitated society as one mass. There wasno refuge from its Gothic irruptions,?no sanctuary of genius securefrom its unhallowed influence.'"To all these sources of poetry,we fully admit, theBible isdiametricallyopposed. With war and religious persecutionChristianity admits no compromise. She aims at the utter exterminationof thosemalign influences, aneful alike to the finearts,and toallintellectualpursuits. Her spirit is peace and good-will toman ;her object theestablishment f a universal sympathy forman as asocial, moral, and intellectualbeing ; a charitywhichwill embrace

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1834.] The Earthly TriumphsofChristianity. 141all, and give a hue of poetry to thewhole life ofman. For allthevicissitudes fthatfeeling, sMr. Montgomery forciblyremarks,' are pre-eminently poetical, in every change of form and colorwhich it undergoes, being intimately associated with all that istransportingor afflictive,bright and pure, grand and terrible,peaceful, holy, and happy, in mortal existence.' "

2.?The Earthly Triumphs ofChristianity.By ProfessorBush. IntheLiterary and Theological Review,No. III., September,1834.This, article is on several accounts highly interesting. It con

tains many novel views and 'striking suggestions* presented in theauthor's somewhat peculiar style of thinking and expression. Prof.Bush endeavors to show thatChristianity is destined tobreak upthe political distinctions of nations and States,?to overthrow civilgovernments,?and to bring the whole human race into one vastcommunity. The reasons for this conclusion we have not room togive ; but can only remark, that it is on thisground he predictsthe cessation of War, and the ultimate prevalence of universal andpermanent Peace. We place before our readers what he says onthis point. We will previously observe, however, that, for ourselves,we have no faith in the peculiar ground taken by theable and excellent author. We do not believe that the final triumph fChristianity nvolves the dissolutionof political distinctions, r theoverthrow of civil governments. Nor do we believe this is necessaryin order to the universal abolition ofWar, any more than the extinctionof private property and the dissolution of the domesticrelations is necessary, before Christianity can correct the evilswhich are occasioned by them. The rightofprivate property, hedomesticrelations, nd the special bonds by which individuals rethusformed intodistinctfamilies,are theoccasion ofmany thingscontradictoryto the just, the generous and peaceful spiritof theGospel ; butwe do not believe that it is the intentionfProvidencetoput an end to theseevils by extinguishing, hrough hristianity,privateproperty, nd breaking up thedistinctionf families. Christianity will correct the cause, and not the occasion?the selfishnesswhich perverts, and not the institutions which are perverted. Inlike manner, we believe that civil governments and distinct Stateswill exist in theday of " the latterglory," as well as distinctfamilies ; and thatthe influence f Christianitywill be seen inbinding16

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