(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
And this song is considered a perfect gem,
And as to the meaning, it's what you please.
And this song is considered a perfect gem,
And as to the meaning, it's what you please.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v06 - Cal to Chr
These libraries, we may recall, were the ones Julius Cæsar
partially burned by accident a century later, and Bishop Theophilus
and his mob of Christian zealots finished destroying as repositories
of paganism some three centuries later still. The collections said to
have been destroyed by Caliph Omar when Amru took Alexandria in
640 A. D. , on the ground that if they agreed with the Koran they
were superfluous and if they contradicted it they were blasphemous,
were later ones; but the whole story is discredited by modern schol-
arship. The world has not ceased mourning for this untold and
irreparable loss of the choicest fruits of the human spirit.
Of all these precious manuscripts and parchments, then, Calli-
machus was made curator about the year B. C. 260. Aulus Gellius
computes the time in this wise:- "Four-hundred-ninety years after
the founding of Rome, the first Punic war was begun, and not long
after, Callimachus, the poet of Cyrene in Alexandria, flourished at the
court of King Ptolemy. " At this time he must have been already
married to the wife of whom Suidas speaks in his 'Lexicon,' a
daughter of a Syracusan gentleman.
The number of Callimachus's works, which are reported to have
reached eight hundred, testifies to his popularity in the Alexandrian
period of Greek literature. It contradicts also the maxim ascribed to
him, that "a great book is a great evil. " Among the prose works
## p. 3102 (#64) ############################################
3102
CALLIMACHUS
which would have enriched our knowledge of literature and history
was his history of Greek literature in one hundred and twenty books,
classifying the Greek writers and naming them chronologically. These
were the results of his long labors in the libraries. Among them
was a book on the Museum and the schools connected with it, with
records of illustrious educators and of the books they had written.
It is his poetry that has in the main survived, and yet as Ovid
says-calling him Battiades, either from his father's name or from
the illustrious founder of his native Cyrene-
"Battiades semper toto cantabitur orbe:
Quamvis ingenio non valet, arte valet. ”
(Even throughout all lands Battiades's name will be famous;
Though not in genius supreme, yet by his art he excels. )
Quintilian, however, says he was the prince of Greek elegiac
poets. Of his elegies we have a few fragments, and also the Latin
translation by Catullus of the 'Lock of Berenice. ' Berenice, the sis-
ter and wife of Ptolemy Euergetes, who succeeded his father Phila-
delphus in B. C. 245, had sacrificed some of her hair, laying it on
the altar of a temple, from which it was subsequently stolen. In his
poem, Callimachus as the court poet sang how the gods had taken
the tresses and placed them among the stars. The delicate and
humorous Rape of the Lock' of Alexander Pope is a rather remote
repetition of the same fancy.
We have also from Callimachus's hand six hymns to the gods and
many epigrams, the latter of which, as will be seen by the quotations
given below, are models of their kind. His lyric hymns are, in real-
ity, rather epics in little. They are full of recondite information,
overloaded indeed with learning; elegant, nervous, and elaborate,
rather than easy-flowing, simple, and warm, like a genuine product
of the muse. Many of his epigrams grace the 'Greek Anthology. '
Among the best editions of Callimachus is that of Ernesti (1761).
The extant poems and fragments have been in part translated by
William Dodd (1755) and H. W. Tytler (1856). His scattered epigrams
have incited many to attempt their perfect phrasing.
## p. 3103 (#65) ############################################
CALLIMACHUS
3103
HYMN TO JUPITER
Α
T JOVE's high festival, what song of praise
Shall we his suppliant adorers sing?
To whom may we our pæans rather raise
Than to himself, the great Eternal King,
Who by his nod subdues each earth-born thing;
Whose mighty laws the gods themselves obey?
But whether Crete first saw the Father spring,
Or on Lycæus's mount he burst on day,
My soul is much in doubt, for both that praise essay.
Some say that thou, O Jove, first saw the morn
On Cretan Ida's sacred mountain-side;
Others that thou in Arcady wert born:
Declare, Almighty Father -- which have lied?
Cretans were liars ever: in their pride
Have they built up a sepulchre for thee;
As if the King of Gods and men had died,
And borne the lot of frail mortality.
No! thou hast ever been, and art, and aye shalt be.
Thy mother bore thee on Arcadian ground,
Old Goddess Rhea, on a mountain's height;
With bristling bramble-thickets all around
ht,
The hallowed spot was curiously dight;
And now no creature under heaven's
From lovely woman down to things that creep,
In need of Ilithyia's holy rite,
May dare approach that consecrated steep,
Whose name of Rhea's birth-bed still Arcadians keep.
Fair was the promise of thy childhood's prime,
Almighty Jove! and fairly wert thou reared:
Swift was thy march to manhood: ere thy time
Thy chin was covered by the manly beard;
Though young in age, yet wert thou so revered
For deeds of prowess prematurely done,
That of thy peers or elders none appeared
To claim his birthright;-heaven was all thine own,
Nor dared fell Envy point her arrows at thy throne.
Poets of old do sometimes lack of truth;
For Saturn's ancient kingdom, as they tell,
## p. 3104 (#66) ############################################
3104
CALLIMACHUS
Into three parts was split, as if forsooth
There were a doubtful choice 'twixt Heaven and Hell
To one not fairly mad;--- we know right well
That lots are cast for more equality;
But these against proportion so rebel
That naught can equal her discrepancy;
If one must lie at all- a lie like truth for me!
No chance gave thee the sovranty of heaven;
But to the deeds thy good right hand had done,
And thine own strength and courage, was it given;
These placed thee first, still keep thee on thy throne.
Thou took'st the goodly eagle for thine own,
Through whom to men thy wonders are declared;
To me and mine propitious be they shown!
Through thee by youth's best flower is heaven shared-
Seamen and warriors heed'st thou not, nor e'en the bard:
These be the lesser gods' divided care-
But kings, great Jove, are thine especial dow'r;
They rule the land and sea; they guide the war
What is too mighty for a monarch's pow'r?
By Vulcan's aid the stalwart armorers show'r
Their sturdy blows-warriors to Mars belong-
And gentle Dian ever loves to pour
-
New blessings on her favored hunter throng-
While Phoebus aye directs the true-born poet's song.
But monarchs spring from Jove-nor is there aught
So near approaching Jove's celestial height,
As deeds by heav'n-elected monarchs wrought.
Therefore, O Father, kings are thine of right,
And thou hast set them on a noble height
Above their subject cities; and thine eye
Is ever on them, whether they delight
To rule their people in iniquity,
Or by sound government to raise their name on high.
Thou hast bestowed on all kings wealth and power,
But not in equal measure - this we know,
From knowledge of our own great Governor,
Who stands supreme of kings on earth below.
His morning thoughts his nights in actions show;
His less achievements when designed are done
While others squander years in counsels slow;
## p. 3105 (#67) ############################################
CALLIMACHUS
3105
Not rarely when the mighty seeds are sown,
Are all their air-built hopes by thee, great Jove, o'erthrown.
All hail, Almighty Jove! who givest to men
All good, and wardest off each evil thing.
Oh, who can hymn thy praise? he hath not been,
Nor shall he be, that poet who may sing
In fitting strain thy praises-Father, King,
All hail thrice hail! we pray to thee, dispense
Virtue and wealth to us, wealth varying—
For virtue's naught, mere virtue's no defense;
Then send us virtue hand in hand with competence.
TH
Translation of Fitzjames T. Price.
EPITAPH
H
Is little son of twelve years old Philippus here has laid,
Nicoteles, on whom so much his father's hopes were stayed.
EPIGRAM
(Admired and Paraphrased by Horace)
HE hunter in the mountains every roe
And every hare pursues through frost and snow,
Tracking their footsteps. But if some one say,
"See, here's a beast struck down," he turns away.
Such is my love: I chase the flying game,
And pass with coldness the self-offering dame.
EPITAPH ON HERACLEITUS
TH
HEY told me, Heracleitus, they told me you were dead;
They brought me bitter news to hear, and bitter tears I
shed.
I wept, as I remembered how often you and I
Had tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky.
And now that thou art lying, my dear old Carian guest,
A handful of gray ashes, long, long ago at rest,
Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake;
For Death he taketh all away, but them he cannot take.
Translation of William Johnson.
VI-195
## p. 3106 (#68) ############################################
3106
CALLIMACHUS
EPITAPH
WOU
ULD that swift ships had never been; for so
We ne'er had wept for Sopolis: but he
Dead on the waves now drifts; whilst we must go
Past a void tomb, a mere name's mockery.
Translation of J. A. Symonds.
THE MISANTHROPE
AY, honest Timon, now escaped from light,
SAY Which do you most abhor, or that or night?
«< Man, I most hate the gloomy shades below,
And that because in them are more of you. "
EPITAPH UPON HIMSELF
C
ALLIMACHUS takes up this part of earth,
A man much famed for poesy and mirth.
Translation of William Dodd.
EPITAPH UPON CLEOMBROTUS
OUD cried Cleombrotus, "Farewell, O Sun! "
L
Ere, leaping from a wall, he joined the dead.
No act death-meriting had th' Ambraciote done,
But Plato's volume on the soul had read.
## p. 3107 (#69) ############################################
3107
CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY
(1831-1884)
O ONE ever attained greater fame with few, slight, and unserl-
ous books than this English author. His name rests upon four
volumes only:-'Verses and Translations' (1862); Transla-
tions into English and Latin' (1866); Theocritus Translated into
English Verse' (1869); and Fly-Leaves' (1872). Fly-Leaves' holds
a unique place in English literature. It is made up chiefly of paro-
dies, which combine the mocking spirit with clever imitations of the
style and affectations of familiar poets. They are witty; they are
humorous; they are good-natured; and they are artistic and extraor-
dinarily clever. His satirical banter shown in these verses-most
of which are real poems as well as parodies-has been classed as
"refined common-sense," and "the exuberant playfulness of a powerful
mind and tender and manly nature. " It contains also independent
literary skits and comiques which are quite equal in merit to the
parodies.
Calverley was born at Martley, Worcestershire, December 22d,
1831, the son of the Rev. Henry Blayds, a descendant of an old
Yorkshire family named Calverley. In 1852 Mr. Blayds resumed the
name of Calverley, which had been dropped at the beginning of the
century. Calverley was more famous at Harrow for his marvelous
jumping and other athletic feats than for his studies, but even at
this period he showed great talent for translating from the classics,
and astonished every one by his gifts of memory. A few Latin
verses won for him the Balliol scholarship in 1850, and in the next
year he received at Oxford the Chancellor's prize for a Latin poem.
In 1852 he went to Cambridge, and shortly after won the Craven
scholarship, as well as numerous medals and prizes for his attain-
ments in Greek and Latin. This was the more remarkable inasmuch
as he was extremely indolent and very fond of society, preferring to
entertain his friends by his witty songs, his charming voice, his
clever caricatures—for he had talent with his pencil-and his
brilliant conversation, rather than to apply himself to routine work.
His comrades used to lock him into a room to make him work, and
even then he would outwit them by dashing off a witty parody or a
bit of impromptu verse. Among his literary jeux d'esprit was an
examination paper on 'Pickwick,' prepared as a Christmas joke in
exact imitation of a genuine "exam. " The prizes, two first editions
## p. 3108 (#70) ############################################
3108
CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY
of Pickwick, were won by W. W. Skeat, now famous as a philolo-
gist, and Walter Besant, known to the public as a novelist.
Calverley remained in Cambridge as tutor and lecturer, and was
presently called to the bar. It seemed the irony of fate that the
famous athlete should receive an injury while skating which com-
pelled him to abandon his profession, and for seventeen years
practically abandon work. He died at Folkestone, on February 17th,
1884.
That he was adored by his friends, and possessed unusual quali-
ties of character as well as mind, may be seen in the memoir pub-
lished by Walter T. Sendall with the 'Literary Remains' (1885).
Apart from his wit, Calverley has a distinct claim to remembrance
on account of his remarkable scholarship. His translations from
Greek and Latin have won the enthusiastic admiration of specialists
and students of the classics. Dr. Gunson, tutor of his college, an
accomplished Latinist, declared that he thought Calverley's Horatian
verse better than Horace's, being equally poetical, and more dis-
tinguished in style. These works not only attest his mastery of
ancient languages, but also his acquaintance with the beauty and
capacity of English verse, into which he has put a grace of his own.
His numerous renderings of Latin into English and English into
Latin show his ease and dexterity of both thought and touch, and
his translation of Theocritus is considered by authorities to be a
masterpiece of literary workmanship.
I.
From James Payn's Some Literary Recollections' and 'Temple Bar, 1887
Mention any occasion on which it is specified that the Fat
Boy was not asleep; and that (1) Mr. Pickwick and (2)
Mr. Weller, senr. , ran. Deduce from expressions used
on one occasion Mr. Pickwick's maximum of speed.
Who were Mr. Staple, Goodwin, Mr. Brooks, Villam, Mrs.
Bunkin, "old Nobs," "cast-iron head," young Bantam ?
What operation was performed on Tom Smart's chair? Who
little thinks that in which pocket, of what garment, in
where, he has left what, entreating him to return to
whom, with how many what, and all how big?
3.
4.
FROM AN EXAMINATION PAPER'
(THE POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF THE PICKWICK CLUB'
6. "Mr. Weller's knowledge of London was extensive and
peculiar. " Illustrate this by a reference to facts.
## p. 3109 (#71) ############################################
CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY
3109
20.
12.
18.
21.
23-
9. Describe the common Profeel-machine.
10.
II.
8. Give in full Samuel Weller's first compliment to Mary, and
his father's critique upon the same young lady. What
church was on the valentine that first attracted Mr.
Samuel's eye in the shop?
25.
24.
28.
State the component parts of dog's-nose; and simplify the
expression "taking a grinder. "
On finding his principal in the Pound, Mr. Weller and the
town-beadle varied directly. Show that the latter was
ultimately eliminated, and state the number of rounds in
the square which is not described.
"Anythink for air and exercise, as the werry old donkey
observed ven they voke him up from his death-bed to
carry ten gen'lmen to Greenwich in a tax-cart! " Illus-
trate this by stating any remark recorded in the 'Pick-
wick Papers' to have been made by a (previously) dumb
animal, with the circumstances under which he made it.
How did the old lady make a memorandum, and of what, at
whist? Show that there were at least three times as
many fiddles as harps in Muggleton at the time of the
ball at Manor Farm.
Write down the chorus to each line of Mr. S. Weller's song,
and a sketch of the mottled-faced man's excursus on it.
Is there any ground for conjecturing that he (Sam) had
more brothers than one?
How many lumps of sugar went into the Shepherd's liquor
as a rule? and is any exception recorded?
"She's a-swelling wisibly. " When did this same phenome-
non occur again, and what fluid caused the pressure on
the body in the latter case?
How did Mr. Weller, senr. , define the Funds; and what
view did he take of Reduced Consols? In what terms is
his elastic force described when he assaulted Mr. Stiggins
at the meeting? Write down the name of the meeting.
роßаtоrópш: a good judge of cattle; hence, a good judge.
of character! Note on Esch. Ag. -Illustrate the theory
involved by a remark of the parent Weller.
Deduce from a remark of Mr. Weller, junr. , the price per
mile of cabs at the period.
29. What do you know of the hotel next the Ball at Rochester?
Who beside Mr. Pickwick is recorded to have worn gaiters?
30.
## p. 3110 (#72) ############################################
3110
CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY
BALLAD
Imitation of Jean Ingelow
THE
HE auld wife sat at her ivied door,
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
A thing she had frequently done before;
And her spectacles lay on her aproned knees.
The piper he piped on the hill-top high,
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
Till the cow said "I die," and the goose asked "Why? "
And the dog said nothing, but searched for fleas.
The farmer he strode through the square farmyard;
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
His last brew of ale was a trifle hard-
The connection of which with the plot one sees.
The farmer's daughter hath frank blue eyes;
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
She hears the rooks caw in the windy skies,
As she sits at her lattice and shells her peas.
The farmer's daughter hath ripe red lips;
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
If you try to approach her, away she skips
Over tables and chairs with apparent ease.
The farmer's daughter hath soft brown hair;
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
And I've met with a ballad, I can't say where,
Which wholly consisted of lines like these.
She sat with her hands 'neath her dimpled cheeks,
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
And spake not a word. While a lady speaks
There is hope, but she didn't even sneeze.
She sat with her hands 'neath her crimson cheeks;
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
She gave up mending her father's breeks,
And let the cat roll on her best chemise.
She sat with her hands 'neath her burning cheeks,
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
And gazed at the piper for thirteen weeks;
Then she followed him out o'er the misty leas.
## p. 3111 (#73) ############################################
CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY
3111
Her sheep followed her, as their tails did them.
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
And this song is considered a perfect gem,
And as to the meaning, it's what you please.
LOVERS, AND A REFLECTION
Imitation of Jean Ingelow
N MOSS-PRANKT dells which the sunbeams flatter,
(And heaven it knoweth what that may mean;
Meaning, however, is no great matter)
When woods are a-tremble, with rifts atween;
Thro' God's own heather we wonned together,
I and my Willie (O love my love):
I need hardly remark it was glorious weather,
And flitterbats wavered alow, above;
Boats were curtseying, rising, bowing,
(Boats in that climate are so polite,)
And sands were a ribbon of green endowing,
And O the sun-dazzle on bark and bight!
Thro' the rare red heather we danced together,
(O love my Willie! ) and smelt for flowers:
I must mention again it was gorgeous weather,
Rhymes are so scarce in this world of ours:-
By rises that flushed with their purple favors,
Thro' becks that brattled o'er grasses sheen,
We walked or waded, we two young shavers,
Thanking our stars we were both so green.
We journeyed in parallels, I and Willie,
In fortunate parallels! Butterflies,
Hid in weltering shadows of daffodilly
Or marjoram, kept making peacock eyes:
Song-birds darted about, some inky
As coal, some snowy, I ween, as curds;
(Or rosy as pinks, or as roses pinky —)
They reck of no eerie To-come, those birds!
But they skim over bents which the mill-stream washes,
Or hang in the lift 'neath a white cloud's hem;
## p. 3112 (#74) ############################################
CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY
3112
They need no parasols, no goloshes;
And good Mrs. Trimmer she feedeth them.
Then we thrid God's cowslips (as erst his heather)
That endowed the wan grass with their golden blooms;
And snapt (it was perfectly charming weather) —
Our fingers at Fate and her goddess-glooms:
And Willie 'gan sing (O his notes were fluty;
Wafts fluttered them out to the white-winged sea) –
Something made up of rhymes that have done much duty,
Rhymes (better to put it) of "ancientry":
Bowers of flowers encountered showers
In William's carol-(O love my Willie! )
When he bade sorrow borrow from blithe to-morrow
I quite forget what-say a daffodilly.
A nest in a hollow, "with buds to follow,"
I think occurred next in his nimble strain;
And clay that was "kneaden," of course in Eden,-
A rhyme most novel, I do maintain:
Mists, bones, the singer himself, love-stories,
And all at least furlable things got "furled ";
Not with any design to conceal their glories,
But simply and solely to rhyme with "world. "
*
*
Oh, if billows and pillows and hours and flowers,
And all the brave rhymes of an elder day,
Could be furled together, this genial weather,
And carted or carried in wafts away,
Nor ever again trotted out - ay me!
How much fewer volumes of verse there'd be!
VISIONS
From Fly-Leaves'
"She was a phantom-" etc.
IN
N LONE Glenartney's thickets lies couched the lordly stag,
The dreaming terrier's tail forgets its customary wag;
And plodding plowmen's weary steps insensibly grow quicker,
As broadening casements light them on toward home, or home-
brewed liquor.
## p. 3113 (#75) ############################################
CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY
3113
It is—in brief — the evening: that pure and pleasant time,
When stars break into splendor, and poets into rhyme;
When in the glass of Memory the forms of loved ones shine—
And when, of course, Miss Goodchild is prominent in mine.
Miss Goodchild - Julia Goodchild! —how graciously you smiled
Upon my childish passion once, yourself a fair-haired child:
When I was (no doubt) profiting by Dr. Crabb's instruction,
And sent those streaky lollipops home for your fairy suction.
"She wore her natural "roses, the night when first we met,".
Her golden hair was gleaming neath the coercive net:
"Her brow was like the snawdrift," her step was like Queen
Mab's,
And gone was instantly the heart of every boy at Crabb's.
The parlor-boarder chasséed tow'rds her on graceful limb;
The onyx decked his bosom-but her smiles were not for him:
With me she danced-till drowsily her eyes "began to blink,"
And I brought raisin wine, and said, "Drink, pretty creature,
drink! "
And evermore, when winter coines in his garb of snows,
And the returning schoolboy is told how fast he grows;
Shall I with that soft hand in mine-enact ideal Lancers,
And dream I hear demure remarks, and make impassioned
answers.
I know that never, never may her love for me return
At night I muse upon the fact with undisguised concern
But ever shall I bless that day! -I don't bless, as a rule,
The days I spent at "Dr. Crabb's Preparatory School. "
――――
―
And yet we two may meet again,- (Be still, my throbbing heart! )
Now rolling years have weaned us from jam and raspberry-tart.
One night I saw a vision -'twas when musk-roses bloom,
I stood
we stood — upon a rug, in a sumptuous dining-room:
One hand clasped hers - one easily reposed upon my hip —
And "Bless ye! " burst abruptly from Mr. Goodchild's lip:
I raised my brimming eye, and saw in hers an answering gleam—
My heart beat wildly—and I woke, and lo! it was a dream.
## p. 3114 (#76) ############################################
CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY
3114
CHANGED
I
KNOW not why my soul is racked;
Why I ne'er smile, as was my wont
I only know that, as a fact,
I don't.
I used to roam o'er glen and glade,
Buoyant and blithe as other folk,
And not unfrequently I made
A joke.
A minstrel's fire within me burned;
I'd sing, as one whose heart must break,
Lay upon lay-I nearly learned
To shake.
All day I sang; of love and fame,
Of fights our fathers fought of yore,
Until the thing almost became
A bore.
I cannot sing the old songs now!
It is not that I deem them low;
'Tis that I can't remember how
They go.
I could not range the hills till high
Above me stood the summer moon:
And as to dancing, I could fly
As soon.
The sports, to which with boyish glee
I sprang erewhile, attract no more:
Although I am but sixty-three
Or four.
Nay, worse than that, I've seemed of late
To shrink from happy boyhood - boys
Have grown so noisy, and I hate
A noise.
They fright me when the beech is green,
By swarming up its stem for eggs;
They drive their horrid hoops between
My legs.
It's idle to repine, I know;
I'll tell you what I'll do instead:
I'll drink my arrowroot, and go
To bed.
## p. 3115 (#77) ############################################
CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY
3115
THOUGHTS AT A RAILWAY STATION
Is but a box, of modest deal;
'T's
Directed to no matter where:
Yet down my cheek the teardrops steal
Yes, I am blubbering like a seal;
For on it is this mute appeal,
"With care. "
I am a stern cold man,
and range
Apart: but those vague words "With care»
Wake yearnings in me sweet as strange:
Drawn from my moral Moated Grange,
I feel I rather like the change
Of air.
Hast thou ne'er seen rough pointsmen spy
Some simple English phrase "With care»
Or "This side uppermost”—and cry
Like children? No? No more have I.
Yet deem not him whose eyes are dry
A bear.
-
But ah! what treasure hides beneath
That lid so much the worse for wear?
A ring perhaps a rosy wreath-
A photograph by Vernon Heath —
Some matron's temporary teeth
Or hair!
-
Perhaps some seaman, in Peru
Or Ind, hath stowed herein a rare
Cargo of birds'-eggs for his Sue;
With many a vow that he'll be true,
And many a hint that she is too-
Too fair.
Perhaps but wherefore vainly pry
Into the page that's folded there?
I shall be better by-and-by:
The porters, as I sit and sigh,
Pass and repass-I wonder why
They stare!
## p. 3116 (#78) ############################################
3116
CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY
"FOREVER »
OREVER! 'Tis a single word!
F
Our rude forefathers deemed it two;
Can you imagine so absurd
A view?
Forever! What abysms of woe
The word reveals, what frenzy, what
Despair! For ever (printed so)
Did not.
It looks, ah me! how trite and tame;
It fails to sadden or appall
Or solace it is not the same
At all.
O thou to whom it first occurred
To solder the disjoined, and dower
Thy native language with a word
Of power:
We bless thee! Whether far or near
Thy dwelling, whether dark or fair
Thy kingly brow, is neither here
Nor there.
But in men's hearts shall be thy throne.
While the great pulse of England beats:
Thou coiner of a word unknown
To Keats!
And nevermore must printer do
As men did long ago; but run
"For" into "ever," bidding two
Be one.
Forever! passion-fraught, it throws
O'er the dim page a gloom, a glamour:
It's sweet, it's strange; and I suppose
It's grammar.
Forever! 'Tis a single word!
And yet our fathers deemed it two.
Nor am I confident they erred; —
Are you?
## p. 3116 (#79) ############################################
## p. 3116 (#80) ############################################
JOHN CALVIN.
## p. 3116 (#81) ############################################
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## p. 3116 (#82) ############################################
MOHN CALVIN.
## p. 3117 (#83) ############################################
3117
JOHN CALVIN
(1509-1564)
BY ARTHUR CUSHMAN MCGIFFERT
OHN CALVIN was born in the village of Noyon, in northeastern
France, on the 10th of July, 1509. He was intended by his
parents for the priesthood, for which he seemed to be pecul-
iarly fitted by his naturally austere disposition, averse to every form
of sport or frivolity, and he was given an excellent education with
that calling in view; but finally at the command of his father-
whose plans for his son had undergone a change - he gave up his
theological preparation and devoted himself to the study of law.
Gifted with an extraordinary memory, rare insight, and an uncom-
monly keen reasoning faculty, he speedily distinguished himself in his
new field, and a brilliant career was predicted for him by his teachers.
His tastes however were more literary than legal, and his first pub-
lished work, written at the age of twenty-three, was a commentary
on Seneca's 'De Clementia,' which brought him wide repute as a
classical scholar and as a clear and forceful writer.
Though he had apparently renounced forever all thoughts of a
clerical life, he retained, even while he was engaged in the study of
law and in the more congenial pursuit of literature, his early love for
theology; and in 1532, under the influence of some of Luther's writ-
ings which happened to fall into his hands, he was converted to the
Protestant faith and threw in his fortunes with the little evangelical
party in Paris. His intellectual attainments made him a marked man
wherever he went, and he speedily became the leading spirit in the
circle to which he had attached himself. Compelled soon afterward
by the persecuting measures of King Francis I. to flee the country,
he took up his residence at Basle and settled down, as he hoped, to
a quiet literary life. It was during his stay here that he published
in 1536 the first edition of his greatest work, The Christian Institutes,'
in which is contained the system of theology which has for centuries
borne his name, and by which he is best known to the world at large.
Probably no other work written by so young a man has ever pro-
duced such a wide-spread, profound, and lasting influence. In its
original form, it is true, the work was only a brief and simple intro-
duction to the study of the Scriptures, much less imposing and for-
bidding than the elaborate body of divinity which is now known to
theologians as 'Calvin's Institutes': but all the substance of the last
## p. 3118 (#84) ############################################
3118
JOHN CALVIN
edition is to be found in the first; the theology of the one is the
theology of the other-the Calvin of 1559 is the Calvin of 1536. The
fact that at the age of twenty-six Calvin could publish a system of
theology at once so original and so profound -a system, moreover,
which with all his activity of intellect and love of truth he never had
occasion to modify in any essential particular-is one of the most
striking phenomena in the history of the human mind; and yet it is
but one of many illustrations of the man's marvelous clearness and
comprehensiveness of vision, and of his force and decision of char-
acter. His life from beginning to end was the consistent unfolding
of a single dominant principle - the unwavering pursuit of a single
controlling purpose. From his earliest youth the sense of duty was
all-supreme with him; he lived under a constant imperative—in awe
of, and in reverent obedience to, the will of a sovereign God; and his
theology is but the translation into language of that experience; its
translation by one of the world's greatest masters of logical thought
and of clear speech.
Calvin's great work was accompanied by a dedicatory epistle
addressed to King Francis I. , which is by common consent one of the
finest specimens of courteous and convincing apology in existence.
A brief extract from it will be found in the selections given below.
Soon after the publication of the 'Institutes,' Calvin's plans for a
quiet literary career were interrupted by a peremptory call to assist
in the work of reforming the Church and State of Geneva; and the
remainder of his life, with the exception of a brief interval of exile,
was spent in that city, at the head of a religious movement whose
influence was ultimately felt throughout all Western Europe. It is
true that Calvin was not the originating genius of the Reformation —
that he belonged only to the second generation of reformers, and
that he learned the Protestant faith from Luther. But he became
for the peoples of Western Europe what Luther was for Germany,
and he gave his own peculiar type of Protestantism—that type
which was congenial to his disposition and experience - to Switzer-
land, to France, to the Netherlands, to Scotland, and through the
Dutch, the English Puritans, and the Scotch Presbyterians, to large
portions of the New World. Calvin, to be sure, is not widely popu-
lar to-day even in those lands which owe him most, for he had
little of that human sympathy which glorifies the best thought and
life of the present age; but for all that, he has left his mark upon
the world, and his influence is not likely ever to be wholly out-
grown. His emphasis upon God's holiness made his followers scrupu-
lously, even censoriously pure; his emphasis upon God's will made
them stern and unyielding in the performance of what they believed
to be their duty; his emphasis upon God's majesty, paradoxical
## p. 3119 (#85) ############################################
JOHN CALVIN
3119
though it may seem at first sight, promoted in no small degree the
growth of civil and religious liberty, for it dwarfed all mere human
authority and made men bold to withstand the unlawful encroach-
ments of their fellows. Thus Calvin became a mighty force in the
world, though he gave the world far more of law than of gospel,
far more of Moses than of Christ.
Calvin's career as a writer began at an early day and continued
until his death. His pen was a ready one and was seldom idle. In
the midst of the most engrossing cares and occupations-the cares
and occupations of a preacher, a pastor, a teacher of theology, a
statesman, and a reformer to whom the Protestants of many lands
looked for inspiration and for counsel-he found time, though he
died at the early age of fifty-four, to produce works that to-day fill
more than threescore volumes, and all of which bear the unmistak-
able impress of a great mind. In addition to his 'Institutes,' theo-
logical and ethical tracts, and treatises, sermons, and epistles without
number, he wrote commentaries upon almost all the books of the
Bible; which for lucidity, for wide and accurate learning, and for
sound and ripe judgment, have never been surpassed. Among the
most characteristic and important of his briefer works are his vigor-
ous and effective 'Reply to Cardinal Sadolet,' who had endeavored
after Calvin's exile from Geneva in 1539 to win back the Genevese
to the Roman Church; his tract on The Necessity of Reforming the
Church; presented to the Imperial Diet at Spires, A. D. 1544, in the
cause of all who wish with Christ to reign'—an admirable statement
of the conditions which had made a reformation of the Church impera-
tively necessary, and had led to the great religious and ecclesiastical
revolution; another tract on The True Method of Giving Peace to
Christendom and Reforming the Church,'. marked by a beautiful
Christian spirit and permeated with sound practical sense; still
another containing Articles Agreed Upon by the Faculty of Sacred
Theology at Paris, with the Antidote'; and finally an 'Admonition
Showing the Advantages which Christendom might Derive from an
Inventory of Relics. ' Though Calvin was from boyhood up of a most
serious turn of mind, and though his writings, in marked contrast to
the writings of Luther, exhibit few if any traces of genial sponta-
neous humor, the last two works show that he knew how to employ
satire on occasion in a very telling way for the overthrow of error
and for the discomfiture of his opponents.
In addition to the services which Calvin rendered by his writings
to the cause of Christianity and of sacred learning, must be recog-
nized the lasting obligation under which as an author he put his
mother tongue. Whether he wrote in Latin or in French, his style
was always chaste, elegant, clear, and vigorous. His Latin compares
## p. 3120 (#86) ############################################
3120
JOHN CALVIN
favorably with the best models of antiquity; his French is a new
creation. The latter language indeed owes almost as much to Calvin
as the German language owes to Luther. He was unquestionably its
greatest master in the sixteenth century, and he did more than any
one else to fix its permanent character-to give it that exactness,
that lucidity, that purity and harmony of which it justly boasts.
Calvin's writings bear throughout the imprint of his character.
There appears in all of them the same horror of impurity and dis-
honor, the same stern sense of duty, the same respect for the sov-
ereignty of the Almighty, the same severe judgment of human fail-
ings. To read them is to breathe the tonic air of snow-clad heights;
but they are seldom if ever touched with the tender glow of human
feeling or transfigured with the radiance of creative imagination.
There is that in David, in Isaiah, in Paul, in Luther, which appeals
to every heart and makes their words immortal; but Calvin was
neither poet nor prophet,—the divine afflatus was not his,- and it is
not without reason that his writings, vigorous, forceful, profound, as
is their context, and pure and elegant as is their style, are read
to-day only by theologians or historians.
Archer Cushman
Mut
PREFATORY ADDRESS TO THE INSTITUTES›
T
FRANCIS, KING OF THE FRENCH, the most Christian Majesty,
the most Mighty and Illustrious Monarch, his Sovereign,—
John Calvin prays peace and salvation in Christ.
Sire: When I first engaged in this work, nothing was fur-
ther from my thoughts than to write what should afterwards be
presented to your Majesty. My intention was only to furnish a
kind of rudiments, by which those who feel some interest in
religion might be trained to true godliness. And I toiled at the
task chiefly for the sake of my countrymen the French, multi-
tudes of whom I perceived to be hungering and thirsting after
Christ, while very few seemed to have been duly imbued with
even a slender knowledge of him. That this was the object
which I had in view is apparent from the work itself, which is
written in a simple and elementary form, adapted for instruc-
tion.
-
## p. 3121 (#87) ############################################
JOHN CALVIN
3121
But when I perceived that the fury of certain bad men had
risen to such a height in your realm that there was no place in
it for sound doctrine, I thought it might be of service if I were
in the same work both to give instruction to my countrymen,
and also lay before your Majesty a Confession, from which you
may learn what the doctrine is that so inflames the rage of
those madmen who are this day with fire and sword troubling
your kingdom. For I fear not to declare that what I have here
given may be regarded as a summary of the very doctrine
which, they vociferate, ought to be punished with confiscation,
exile, imprisonment, and flames, as well as exterminated by land
and sea.
I am aware indeed how, in order to render our cause as
hateful to your Majesty as possible, they have filled your ears
and mind with atrocious insinuations; but you will be pleased of
your clemency to reflect that neither in word nor deed could
there
be any innocence, were it sufficient merely to accuse.
When
any one, with the view of exciting prejudice, observes
that this doctrine of which I am endeavoring to give your
Majesty an account has been condemned by the suffrages of all
the estates, and was long ago stabbed again and again by par-
tial sentences of courts of law, he undoubtedly says nothing
more than that it has sometimes been violently oppressed by the
power and faction of adversaries, and sometimes fraudulently
and insidiously overwhelmed by lies, cavils, and calumny. While
a cause is unheard, it is violence to pass sanguinary sentences
against it; it is fraud to charge it, contrary to its deserts, with
sedition and mischief.
That no one may suppose we are unjust in thus com-
plaining, you yourself, most illustrious Sovereign, can bear us
witness with what lying calumnies it is daily traduced in your
presence; as aiming at nothing else than to wrest the sceptres of
kings out of their hands, to overturn all tribunals and seats of
justice, to subvert all order and government, to disturb the peace
and quiet of society, to abolish all laws, destroy the distinctions
of rank and property, and in short turn all things upside down.
And yet that which you hear is but the smallest portion of what
is said; for among the common people are disseminated certain
horrible insinuations-insinuations which, if well founded, would
justify the whole world in condemning the doctrine with its
authors to a thousand fires and gibbets. Who can wonder that
VI-196
## p. 3122 (#88) ############################################
3122
JOHN CALVIN
the popular hatred is inflamed against it, when credit is given to
those most iniquitous accusations? See why all ranks unite with.
one accord in condemning our persons and our doctrine!
Carried away by this feeling, those who sit in judgment
merely give utterance to the prejudices which they have imbibed
at home, and think they have duly performed their part if they
do not order punishment to be inflicted on any one until con-
victed, either on his own confession, or on legal evidence. But
of what crime convicted? "Of that condemned doctrine," is the
answer. But with what justice condemned? The very evidence
of the defense was not to abjure the doctrine itself, but to main-
tain its truth. On this subject, however, not a whisper is
allowed.
It is plain indeed that we fear God sincerely and worship him
in truth, since, whether by life or by death, we desire his name
to be hallowed; and hatred herself has been forced to bear testi-
mony to the innocence and civil integrity of some of our people,
on whom death was inflicted for the very thing which deserved
the highest praise. But if any, under pretext of the gospel,
excite tumults (none such have as yet been detected in your
realm), if any use the liberty of the grace of God as a cloak for
licentiousness (I know of numbers who do), there are laws and
legal punishments by which they may be punished up to the
measure of their deserts; only in the mean time let not the
gospel of God be evil spoken of because of the iniquities of evil
men.
Sire, that you may not lend too credulous an ear to the accu-
sations of our enemies, their virulent injustice has been set before
you at sufficient length: I fear even more than sufficient, since
this preface has grown almost to the bulk of a full apology. My
object however was not to frame a defense, but only with a
view to the hearing of our cause, to mollify your mind, now
indeed turned away and estranged from us, I add, even in-
flamed against us, but whose good will, we are confident, we
should regain, would you but once with calmness and composure
read this our Confession, which we desire your Majesty to accept.
instead of a defense. But if the whispers of the malevolent so
possess your ear that the accused are to have no opportunity of
pleading their cause; if those vindictive furies, with your con-
nivance, are always to rage with bonds, scourgings, tortures,
maimings, and burnings-we indeed, like sheep doomed to
―――
-
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JOHN CALVIN
3123
slaughter, shall be reduced to every extremity; yet so that in
our patience we will possess our souls, and wait for the strong
hand of the Lord, which doubtless will appear in its own time,
and show itself armed, both to rescue the poor from affliction
and also take vengeance on the despisers, who are now exulting
so securely.
Most illustrious King, may the Lord, the King of kings, estab-
lish your throne in righteousness and your sceptre in equity.
BASLE, August 1st, 1536.
ELECTION AND PREDESTINATION
From the Institutes of the Christian Religion'
THE
HE human mind when it hears this doctrine of election can-
not restrain its petulance, but boils and rages as if aroused
by the sound of a trumpet. Many, professing a desire to
defend the Deity from an invidious charge, admit the doctrine
of election but deny that any one is reprobated (Bernard, in
'Die Ascensionis,' Serm. 2). This they do ignorantly and child-
ishly, since there could be no election without its opposite,
reprobation. God is said to set apart those whom he adopts for
salvation. It were most absurd to say that he admits others
fortuitously, or that they by their industry acquire what election
alone confers on a few. Those therefore whom God passes by
he reprobates, and that for no other cause but because he is
pleased to exclude them from the inheritance which he predes-
tines to his children. Nor is it possible to tolerate the petulance
of men in refusing to be restrained by the word of God, in
regard to his incomprehensible counsel, which even angels adore.
We have already been told that hardening is not less under
the immediate hand of God than mercy. Paul does not, after
the example of those whom I have mentioned, labor anxiously
to defend God by calling in the aid of falsehood; he only
reminds us that it is unlawful for the creature to quarrel with
its Creator. Then how will those who refuse to admit that any
are reprobated by God, explain the following words of Christ?
"Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall
be rooted up" (Matth. xv. 13). They are plainly told that all
whom the heavenly Father has not been pleased to plant as
sacred trees in his garden are doomed and devoted to destruc-
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3124
JOHN CALVIN
tion. If they deny that this is a sign of reprobation, there is
nothing, however clear, that can be proved to them. But if
they will still murmur, let us in the soberness of faith rest con-
tented with the admonition of Paul, that it can be no ground of
complaint that God, "willing to show his wrath, and to make
his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels
of wrath fitted for destruction: and that he might make known
the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had
afore prepared unto glory" (Rom. ix. 22, 23). Let my readers
observe that Paul, to cut off all handle for murmuring and
detraction, attributes supreme sovereignty to the wrath and
power of God; for it were unjust that those profound judgments
which transcend all our powers of discernment should be sub-
jected to our calculation.
It is frivolous in our opponents to reply that God does not
altogether reject those whom in lenity he tolerates, but remains.
partially burned by accident a century later, and Bishop Theophilus
and his mob of Christian zealots finished destroying as repositories
of paganism some three centuries later still. The collections said to
have been destroyed by Caliph Omar when Amru took Alexandria in
640 A. D. , on the ground that if they agreed with the Koran they
were superfluous and if they contradicted it they were blasphemous,
were later ones; but the whole story is discredited by modern schol-
arship. The world has not ceased mourning for this untold and
irreparable loss of the choicest fruits of the human spirit.
Of all these precious manuscripts and parchments, then, Calli-
machus was made curator about the year B. C. 260. Aulus Gellius
computes the time in this wise:- "Four-hundred-ninety years after
the founding of Rome, the first Punic war was begun, and not long
after, Callimachus, the poet of Cyrene in Alexandria, flourished at the
court of King Ptolemy. " At this time he must have been already
married to the wife of whom Suidas speaks in his 'Lexicon,' a
daughter of a Syracusan gentleman.
The number of Callimachus's works, which are reported to have
reached eight hundred, testifies to his popularity in the Alexandrian
period of Greek literature. It contradicts also the maxim ascribed to
him, that "a great book is a great evil. " Among the prose works
## p. 3102 (#64) ############################################
3102
CALLIMACHUS
which would have enriched our knowledge of literature and history
was his history of Greek literature in one hundred and twenty books,
classifying the Greek writers and naming them chronologically. These
were the results of his long labors in the libraries. Among them
was a book on the Museum and the schools connected with it, with
records of illustrious educators and of the books they had written.
It is his poetry that has in the main survived, and yet as Ovid
says-calling him Battiades, either from his father's name or from
the illustrious founder of his native Cyrene-
"Battiades semper toto cantabitur orbe:
Quamvis ingenio non valet, arte valet. ”
(Even throughout all lands Battiades's name will be famous;
Though not in genius supreme, yet by his art he excels. )
Quintilian, however, says he was the prince of Greek elegiac
poets. Of his elegies we have a few fragments, and also the Latin
translation by Catullus of the 'Lock of Berenice. ' Berenice, the sis-
ter and wife of Ptolemy Euergetes, who succeeded his father Phila-
delphus in B. C. 245, had sacrificed some of her hair, laying it on
the altar of a temple, from which it was subsequently stolen. In his
poem, Callimachus as the court poet sang how the gods had taken
the tresses and placed them among the stars. The delicate and
humorous Rape of the Lock' of Alexander Pope is a rather remote
repetition of the same fancy.
We have also from Callimachus's hand six hymns to the gods and
many epigrams, the latter of which, as will be seen by the quotations
given below, are models of their kind. His lyric hymns are, in real-
ity, rather epics in little. They are full of recondite information,
overloaded indeed with learning; elegant, nervous, and elaborate,
rather than easy-flowing, simple, and warm, like a genuine product
of the muse. Many of his epigrams grace the 'Greek Anthology. '
Among the best editions of Callimachus is that of Ernesti (1761).
The extant poems and fragments have been in part translated by
William Dodd (1755) and H. W. Tytler (1856). His scattered epigrams
have incited many to attempt their perfect phrasing.
## p. 3103 (#65) ############################################
CALLIMACHUS
3103
HYMN TO JUPITER
Α
T JOVE's high festival, what song of praise
Shall we his suppliant adorers sing?
To whom may we our pæans rather raise
Than to himself, the great Eternal King,
Who by his nod subdues each earth-born thing;
Whose mighty laws the gods themselves obey?
But whether Crete first saw the Father spring,
Or on Lycæus's mount he burst on day,
My soul is much in doubt, for both that praise essay.
Some say that thou, O Jove, first saw the morn
On Cretan Ida's sacred mountain-side;
Others that thou in Arcady wert born:
Declare, Almighty Father -- which have lied?
Cretans were liars ever: in their pride
Have they built up a sepulchre for thee;
As if the King of Gods and men had died,
And borne the lot of frail mortality.
No! thou hast ever been, and art, and aye shalt be.
Thy mother bore thee on Arcadian ground,
Old Goddess Rhea, on a mountain's height;
With bristling bramble-thickets all around
ht,
The hallowed spot was curiously dight;
And now no creature under heaven's
From lovely woman down to things that creep,
In need of Ilithyia's holy rite,
May dare approach that consecrated steep,
Whose name of Rhea's birth-bed still Arcadians keep.
Fair was the promise of thy childhood's prime,
Almighty Jove! and fairly wert thou reared:
Swift was thy march to manhood: ere thy time
Thy chin was covered by the manly beard;
Though young in age, yet wert thou so revered
For deeds of prowess prematurely done,
That of thy peers or elders none appeared
To claim his birthright;-heaven was all thine own,
Nor dared fell Envy point her arrows at thy throne.
Poets of old do sometimes lack of truth;
For Saturn's ancient kingdom, as they tell,
## p. 3104 (#66) ############################################
3104
CALLIMACHUS
Into three parts was split, as if forsooth
There were a doubtful choice 'twixt Heaven and Hell
To one not fairly mad;--- we know right well
That lots are cast for more equality;
But these against proportion so rebel
That naught can equal her discrepancy;
If one must lie at all- a lie like truth for me!
No chance gave thee the sovranty of heaven;
But to the deeds thy good right hand had done,
And thine own strength and courage, was it given;
These placed thee first, still keep thee on thy throne.
Thou took'st the goodly eagle for thine own,
Through whom to men thy wonders are declared;
To me and mine propitious be they shown!
Through thee by youth's best flower is heaven shared-
Seamen and warriors heed'st thou not, nor e'en the bard:
These be the lesser gods' divided care-
But kings, great Jove, are thine especial dow'r;
They rule the land and sea; they guide the war
What is too mighty for a monarch's pow'r?
By Vulcan's aid the stalwart armorers show'r
Their sturdy blows-warriors to Mars belong-
And gentle Dian ever loves to pour
-
New blessings on her favored hunter throng-
While Phoebus aye directs the true-born poet's song.
But monarchs spring from Jove-nor is there aught
So near approaching Jove's celestial height,
As deeds by heav'n-elected monarchs wrought.
Therefore, O Father, kings are thine of right,
And thou hast set them on a noble height
Above their subject cities; and thine eye
Is ever on them, whether they delight
To rule their people in iniquity,
Or by sound government to raise their name on high.
Thou hast bestowed on all kings wealth and power,
But not in equal measure - this we know,
From knowledge of our own great Governor,
Who stands supreme of kings on earth below.
His morning thoughts his nights in actions show;
His less achievements when designed are done
While others squander years in counsels slow;
## p. 3105 (#67) ############################################
CALLIMACHUS
3105
Not rarely when the mighty seeds are sown,
Are all their air-built hopes by thee, great Jove, o'erthrown.
All hail, Almighty Jove! who givest to men
All good, and wardest off each evil thing.
Oh, who can hymn thy praise? he hath not been,
Nor shall he be, that poet who may sing
In fitting strain thy praises-Father, King,
All hail thrice hail! we pray to thee, dispense
Virtue and wealth to us, wealth varying—
For virtue's naught, mere virtue's no defense;
Then send us virtue hand in hand with competence.
TH
Translation of Fitzjames T. Price.
EPITAPH
H
Is little son of twelve years old Philippus here has laid,
Nicoteles, on whom so much his father's hopes were stayed.
EPIGRAM
(Admired and Paraphrased by Horace)
HE hunter in the mountains every roe
And every hare pursues through frost and snow,
Tracking their footsteps. But if some one say,
"See, here's a beast struck down," he turns away.
Such is my love: I chase the flying game,
And pass with coldness the self-offering dame.
EPITAPH ON HERACLEITUS
TH
HEY told me, Heracleitus, they told me you were dead;
They brought me bitter news to hear, and bitter tears I
shed.
I wept, as I remembered how often you and I
Had tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky.
And now that thou art lying, my dear old Carian guest,
A handful of gray ashes, long, long ago at rest,
Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake;
For Death he taketh all away, but them he cannot take.
Translation of William Johnson.
VI-195
## p. 3106 (#68) ############################################
3106
CALLIMACHUS
EPITAPH
WOU
ULD that swift ships had never been; for so
We ne'er had wept for Sopolis: but he
Dead on the waves now drifts; whilst we must go
Past a void tomb, a mere name's mockery.
Translation of J. A. Symonds.
THE MISANTHROPE
AY, honest Timon, now escaped from light,
SAY Which do you most abhor, or that or night?
«< Man, I most hate the gloomy shades below,
And that because in them are more of you. "
EPITAPH UPON HIMSELF
C
ALLIMACHUS takes up this part of earth,
A man much famed for poesy and mirth.
Translation of William Dodd.
EPITAPH UPON CLEOMBROTUS
OUD cried Cleombrotus, "Farewell, O Sun! "
L
Ere, leaping from a wall, he joined the dead.
No act death-meriting had th' Ambraciote done,
But Plato's volume on the soul had read.
## p. 3107 (#69) ############################################
3107
CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY
(1831-1884)
O ONE ever attained greater fame with few, slight, and unserl-
ous books than this English author. His name rests upon four
volumes only:-'Verses and Translations' (1862); Transla-
tions into English and Latin' (1866); Theocritus Translated into
English Verse' (1869); and Fly-Leaves' (1872). Fly-Leaves' holds
a unique place in English literature. It is made up chiefly of paro-
dies, which combine the mocking spirit with clever imitations of the
style and affectations of familiar poets. They are witty; they are
humorous; they are good-natured; and they are artistic and extraor-
dinarily clever. His satirical banter shown in these verses-most
of which are real poems as well as parodies-has been classed as
"refined common-sense," and "the exuberant playfulness of a powerful
mind and tender and manly nature. " It contains also independent
literary skits and comiques which are quite equal in merit to the
parodies.
Calverley was born at Martley, Worcestershire, December 22d,
1831, the son of the Rev. Henry Blayds, a descendant of an old
Yorkshire family named Calverley. In 1852 Mr. Blayds resumed the
name of Calverley, which had been dropped at the beginning of the
century. Calverley was more famous at Harrow for his marvelous
jumping and other athletic feats than for his studies, but even at
this period he showed great talent for translating from the classics,
and astonished every one by his gifts of memory. A few Latin
verses won for him the Balliol scholarship in 1850, and in the next
year he received at Oxford the Chancellor's prize for a Latin poem.
In 1852 he went to Cambridge, and shortly after won the Craven
scholarship, as well as numerous medals and prizes for his attain-
ments in Greek and Latin. This was the more remarkable inasmuch
as he was extremely indolent and very fond of society, preferring to
entertain his friends by his witty songs, his charming voice, his
clever caricatures—for he had talent with his pencil-and his
brilliant conversation, rather than to apply himself to routine work.
His comrades used to lock him into a room to make him work, and
even then he would outwit them by dashing off a witty parody or a
bit of impromptu verse. Among his literary jeux d'esprit was an
examination paper on 'Pickwick,' prepared as a Christmas joke in
exact imitation of a genuine "exam. " The prizes, two first editions
## p. 3108 (#70) ############################################
3108
CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY
of Pickwick, were won by W. W. Skeat, now famous as a philolo-
gist, and Walter Besant, known to the public as a novelist.
Calverley remained in Cambridge as tutor and lecturer, and was
presently called to the bar. It seemed the irony of fate that the
famous athlete should receive an injury while skating which com-
pelled him to abandon his profession, and for seventeen years
practically abandon work. He died at Folkestone, on February 17th,
1884.
That he was adored by his friends, and possessed unusual quali-
ties of character as well as mind, may be seen in the memoir pub-
lished by Walter T. Sendall with the 'Literary Remains' (1885).
Apart from his wit, Calverley has a distinct claim to remembrance
on account of his remarkable scholarship. His translations from
Greek and Latin have won the enthusiastic admiration of specialists
and students of the classics. Dr. Gunson, tutor of his college, an
accomplished Latinist, declared that he thought Calverley's Horatian
verse better than Horace's, being equally poetical, and more dis-
tinguished in style. These works not only attest his mastery of
ancient languages, but also his acquaintance with the beauty and
capacity of English verse, into which he has put a grace of his own.
His numerous renderings of Latin into English and English into
Latin show his ease and dexterity of both thought and touch, and
his translation of Theocritus is considered by authorities to be a
masterpiece of literary workmanship.
I.
From James Payn's Some Literary Recollections' and 'Temple Bar, 1887
Mention any occasion on which it is specified that the Fat
Boy was not asleep; and that (1) Mr. Pickwick and (2)
Mr. Weller, senr. , ran. Deduce from expressions used
on one occasion Mr. Pickwick's maximum of speed.
Who were Mr. Staple, Goodwin, Mr. Brooks, Villam, Mrs.
Bunkin, "old Nobs," "cast-iron head," young Bantam ?
What operation was performed on Tom Smart's chair? Who
little thinks that in which pocket, of what garment, in
where, he has left what, entreating him to return to
whom, with how many what, and all how big?
3.
4.
FROM AN EXAMINATION PAPER'
(THE POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF THE PICKWICK CLUB'
6. "Mr. Weller's knowledge of London was extensive and
peculiar. " Illustrate this by a reference to facts.
## p. 3109 (#71) ############################################
CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY
3109
20.
12.
18.
21.
23-
9. Describe the common Profeel-machine.
10.
II.
8. Give in full Samuel Weller's first compliment to Mary, and
his father's critique upon the same young lady. What
church was on the valentine that first attracted Mr.
Samuel's eye in the shop?
25.
24.
28.
State the component parts of dog's-nose; and simplify the
expression "taking a grinder. "
On finding his principal in the Pound, Mr. Weller and the
town-beadle varied directly. Show that the latter was
ultimately eliminated, and state the number of rounds in
the square which is not described.
"Anythink for air and exercise, as the werry old donkey
observed ven they voke him up from his death-bed to
carry ten gen'lmen to Greenwich in a tax-cart! " Illus-
trate this by stating any remark recorded in the 'Pick-
wick Papers' to have been made by a (previously) dumb
animal, with the circumstances under which he made it.
How did the old lady make a memorandum, and of what, at
whist? Show that there were at least three times as
many fiddles as harps in Muggleton at the time of the
ball at Manor Farm.
Write down the chorus to each line of Mr. S. Weller's song,
and a sketch of the mottled-faced man's excursus on it.
Is there any ground for conjecturing that he (Sam) had
more brothers than one?
How many lumps of sugar went into the Shepherd's liquor
as a rule? and is any exception recorded?
"She's a-swelling wisibly. " When did this same phenome-
non occur again, and what fluid caused the pressure on
the body in the latter case?
How did Mr. Weller, senr. , define the Funds; and what
view did he take of Reduced Consols? In what terms is
his elastic force described when he assaulted Mr. Stiggins
at the meeting? Write down the name of the meeting.
роßаtоrópш: a good judge of cattle; hence, a good judge.
of character! Note on Esch. Ag. -Illustrate the theory
involved by a remark of the parent Weller.
Deduce from a remark of Mr. Weller, junr. , the price per
mile of cabs at the period.
29. What do you know of the hotel next the Ball at Rochester?
Who beside Mr. Pickwick is recorded to have worn gaiters?
30.
## p. 3110 (#72) ############################################
3110
CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY
BALLAD
Imitation of Jean Ingelow
THE
HE auld wife sat at her ivied door,
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
A thing she had frequently done before;
And her spectacles lay on her aproned knees.
The piper he piped on the hill-top high,
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
Till the cow said "I die," and the goose asked "Why? "
And the dog said nothing, but searched for fleas.
The farmer he strode through the square farmyard;
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
His last brew of ale was a trifle hard-
The connection of which with the plot one sees.
The farmer's daughter hath frank blue eyes;
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
She hears the rooks caw in the windy skies,
As she sits at her lattice and shells her peas.
The farmer's daughter hath ripe red lips;
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
If you try to approach her, away she skips
Over tables and chairs with apparent ease.
The farmer's daughter hath soft brown hair;
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
And I've met with a ballad, I can't say where,
Which wholly consisted of lines like these.
She sat with her hands 'neath her dimpled cheeks,
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
And spake not a word. While a lady speaks
There is hope, but she didn't even sneeze.
She sat with her hands 'neath her crimson cheeks;
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
She gave up mending her father's breeks,
And let the cat roll on her best chemise.
She sat with her hands 'neath her burning cheeks,
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
And gazed at the piper for thirteen weeks;
Then she followed him out o'er the misty leas.
## p. 3111 (#73) ############################################
CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY
3111
Her sheep followed her, as their tails did them.
(Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese)
And this song is considered a perfect gem,
And as to the meaning, it's what you please.
LOVERS, AND A REFLECTION
Imitation of Jean Ingelow
N MOSS-PRANKT dells which the sunbeams flatter,
(And heaven it knoweth what that may mean;
Meaning, however, is no great matter)
When woods are a-tremble, with rifts atween;
Thro' God's own heather we wonned together,
I and my Willie (O love my love):
I need hardly remark it was glorious weather,
And flitterbats wavered alow, above;
Boats were curtseying, rising, bowing,
(Boats in that climate are so polite,)
And sands were a ribbon of green endowing,
And O the sun-dazzle on bark and bight!
Thro' the rare red heather we danced together,
(O love my Willie! ) and smelt for flowers:
I must mention again it was gorgeous weather,
Rhymes are so scarce in this world of ours:-
By rises that flushed with their purple favors,
Thro' becks that brattled o'er grasses sheen,
We walked or waded, we two young shavers,
Thanking our stars we were both so green.
We journeyed in parallels, I and Willie,
In fortunate parallels! Butterflies,
Hid in weltering shadows of daffodilly
Or marjoram, kept making peacock eyes:
Song-birds darted about, some inky
As coal, some snowy, I ween, as curds;
(Or rosy as pinks, or as roses pinky —)
They reck of no eerie To-come, those birds!
But they skim over bents which the mill-stream washes,
Or hang in the lift 'neath a white cloud's hem;
## p. 3112 (#74) ############################################
CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY
3112
They need no parasols, no goloshes;
And good Mrs. Trimmer she feedeth them.
Then we thrid God's cowslips (as erst his heather)
That endowed the wan grass with their golden blooms;
And snapt (it was perfectly charming weather) —
Our fingers at Fate and her goddess-glooms:
And Willie 'gan sing (O his notes were fluty;
Wafts fluttered them out to the white-winged sea) –
Something made up of rhymes that have done much duty,
Rhymes (better to put it) of "ancientry":
Bowers of flowers encountered showers
In William's carol-(O love my Willie! )
When he bade sorrow borrow from blithe to-morrow
I quite forget what-say a daffodilly.
A nest in a hollow, "with buds to follow,"
I think occurred next in his nimble strain;
And clay that was "kneaden," of course in Eden,-
A rhyme most novel, I do maintain:
Mists, bones, the singer himself, love-stories,
And all at least furlable things got "furled ";
Not with any design to conceal their glories,
But simply and solely to rhyme with "world. "
*
*
Oh, if billows and pillows and hours and flowers,
And all the brave rhymes of an elder day,
Could be furled together, this genial weather,
And carted or carried in wafts away,
Nor ever again trotted out - ay me!
How much fewer volumes of verse there'd be!
VISIONS
From Fly-Leaves'
"She was a phantom-" etc.
IN
N LONE Glenartney's thickets lies couched the lordly stag,
The dreaming terrier's tail forgets its customary wag;
And plodding plowmen's weary steps insensibly grow quicker,
As broadening casements light them on toward home, or home-
brewed liquor.
## p. 3113 (#75) ############################################
CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY
3113
It is—in brief — the evening: that pure and pleasant time,
When stars break into splendor, and poets into rhyme;
When in the glass of Memory the forms of loved ones shine—
And when, of course, Miss Goodchild is prominent in mine.
Miss Goodchild - Julia Goodchild! —how graciously you smiled
Upon my childish passion once, yourself a fair-haired child:
When I was (no doubt) profiting by Dr. Crabb's instruction,
And sent those streaky lollipops home for your fairy suction.
"She wore her natural "roses, the night when first we met,".
Her golden hair was gleaming neath the coercive net:
"Her brow was like the snawdrift," her step was like Queen
Mab's,
And gone was instantly the heart of every boy at Crabb's.
The parlor-boarder chasséed tow'rds her on graceful limb;
The onyx decked his bosom-but her smiles were not for him:
With me she danced-till drowsily her eyes "began to blink,"
And I brought raisin wine, and said, "Drink, pretty creature,
drink! "
And evermore, when winter coines in his garb of snows,
And the returning schoolboy is told how fast he grows;
Shall I with that soft hand in mine-enact ideal Lancers,
And dream I hear demure remarks, and make impassioned
answers.
I know that never, never may her love for me return
At night I muse upon the fact with undisguised concern
But ever shall I bless that day! -I don't bless, as a rule,
The days I spent at "Dr. Crabb's Preparatory School. "
――――
―
And yet we two may meet again,- (Be still, my throbbing heart! )
Now rolling years have weaned us from jam and raspberry-tart.
One night I saw a vision -'twas when musk-roses bloom,
I stood
we stood — upon a rug, in a sumptuous dining-room:
One hand clasped hers - one easily reposed upon my hip —
And "Bless ye! " burst abruptly from Mr. Goodchild's lip:
I raised my brimming eye, and saw in hers an answering gleam—
My heart beat wildly—and I woke, and lo! it was a dream.
## p. 3114 (#76) ############################################
CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY
3114
CHANGED
I
KNOW not why my soul is racked;
Why I ne'er smile, as was my wont
I only know that, as a fact,
I don't.
I used to roam o'er glen and glade,
Buoyant and blithe as other folk,
And not unfrequently I made
A joke.
A minstrel's fire within me burned;
I'd sing, as one whose heart must break,
Lay upon lay-I nearly learned
To shake.
All day I sang; of love and fame,
Of fights our fathers fought of yore,
Until the thing almost became
A bore.
I cannot sing the old songs now!
It is not that I deem them low;
'Tis that I can't remember how
They go.
I could not range the hills till high
Above me stood the summer moon:
And as to dancing, I could fly
As soon.
The sports, to which with boyish glee
I sprang erewhile, attract no more:
Although I am but sixty-three
Or four.
Nay, worse than that, I've seemed of late
To shrink from happy boyhood - boys
Have grown so noisy, and I hate
A noise.
They fright me when the beech is green,
By swarming up its stem for eggs;
They drive their horrid hoops between
My legs.
It's idle to repine, I know;
I'll tell you what I'll do instead:
I'll drink my arrowroot, and go
To bed.
## p. 3115 (#77) ############################################
CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY
3115
THOUGHTS AT A RAILWAY STATION
Is but a box, of modest deal;
'T's
Directed to no matter where:
Yet down my cheek the teardrops steal
Yes, I am blubbering like a seal;
For on it is this mute appeal,
"With care. "
I am a stern cold man,
and range
Apart: but those vague words "With care»
Wake yearnings in me sweet as strange:
Drawn from my moral Moated Grange,
I feel I rather like the change
Of air.
Hast thou ne'er seen rough pointsmen spy
Some simple English phrase "With care»
Or "This side uppermost”—and cry
Like children? No? No more have I.
Yet deem not him whose eyes are dry
A bear.
-
But ah! what treasure hides beneath
That lid so much the worse for wear?
A ring perhaps a rosy wreath-
A photograph by Vernon Heath —
Some matron's temporary teeth
Or hair!
-
Perhaps some seaman, in Peru
Or Ind, hath stowed herein a rare
Cargo of birds'-eggs for his Sue;
With many a vow that he'll be true,
And many a hint that she is too-
Too fair.
Perhaps but wherefore vainly pry
Into the page that's folded there?
I shall be better by-and-by:
The porters, as I sit and sigh,
Pass and repass-I wonder why
They stare!
## p. 3116 (#78) ############################################
3116
CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY
"FOREVER »
OREVER! 'Tis a single word!
F
Our rude forefathers deemed it two;
Can you imagine so absurd
A view?
Forever! What abysms of woe
The word reveals, what frenzy, what
Despair! For ever (printed so)
Did not.
It looks, ah me! how trite and tame;
It fails to sadden or appall
Or solace it is not the same
At all.
O thou to whom it first occurred
To solder the disjoined, and dower
Thy native language with a word
Of power:
We bless thee! Whether far or near
Thy dwelling, whether dark or fair
Thy kingly brow, is neither here
Nor there.
But in men's hearts shall be thy throne.
While the great pulse of England beats:
Thou coiner of a word unknown
To Keats!
And nevermore must printer do
As men did long ago; but run
"For" into "ever," bidding two
Be one.
Forever! passion-fraught, it throws
O'er the dim page a gloom, a glamour:
It's sweet, it's strange; and I suppose
It's grammar.
Forever! 'Tis a single word!
And yet our fathers deemed it two.
Nor am I confident they erred; —
Are you?
## p. 3116 (#79) ############################################
## p. 3116 (#80) ############################################
JOHN CALVIN.
## p. 3116 (#81) ############################################
Syse
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t1terary life It was daring his stay 1ere at h
153, the first edition of ants greatest work, The Christian I
i wich is contained the system of theology which has for eonturics
is name, and by which he is best known to the world at langs
y no other work written by so young a man has ever pro-
such a wide-spread, pr found, and lasting influence. In its
original form, it is true, the work was only a brief and simple int
It
1. 20
she?
titutes?
Inc
on to the study of the Seriptures, much less imp sing and ro
lug than the elaborate body of divinity which is now known to
ley fans as "Calvin's Institutes': but all the substance of the last
}
## p. 3116 (#82) ############################################
MOHN CALVIN.
## p. 3117 (#83) ############################################
3117
JOHN CALVIN
(1509-1564)
BY ARTHUR CUSHMAN MCGIFFERT
OHN CALVIN was born in the village of Noyon, in northeastern
France, on the 10th of July, 1509. He was intended by his
parents for the priesthood, for which he seemed to be pecul-
iarly fitted by his naturally austere disposition, averse to every form
of sport or frivolity, and he was given an excellent education with
that calling in view; but finally at the command of his father-
whose plans for his son had undergone a change - he gave up his
theological preparation and devoted himself to the study of law.
Gifted with an extraordinary memory, rare insight, and an uncom-
monly keen reasoning faculty, he speedily distinguished himself in his
new field, and a brilliant career was predicted for him by his teachers.
His tastes however were more literary than legal, and his first pub-
lished work, written at the age of twenty-three, was a commentary
on Seneca's 'De Clementia,' which brought him wide repute as a
classical scholar and as a clear and forceful writer.
Though he had apparently renounced forever all thoughts of a
clerical life, he retained, even while he was engaged in the study of
law and in the more congenial pursuit of literature, his early love for
theology; and in 1532, under the influence of some of Luther's writ-
ings which happened to fall into his hands, he was converted to the
Protestant faith and threw in his fortunes with the little evangelical
party in Paris. His intellectual attainments made him a marked man
wherever he went, and he speedily became the leading spirit in the
circle to which he had attached himself. Compelled soon afterward
by the persecuting measures of King Francis I. to flee the country,
he took up his residence at Basle and settled down, as he hoped, to
a quiet literary life. It was during his stay here that he published
in 1536 the first edition of his greatest work, The Christian Institutes,'
in which is contained the system of theology which has for centuries
borne his name, and by which he is best known to the world at large.
Probably no other work written by so young a man has ever pro-
duced such a wide-spread, profound, and lasting influence. In its
original form, it is true, the work was only a brief and simple intro-
duction to the study of the Scriptures, much less imposing and for-
bidding than the elaborate body of divinity which is now known to
theologians as 'Calvin's Institutes': but all the substance of the last
## p. 3118 (#84) ############################################
3118
JOHN CALVIN
edition is to be found in the first; the theology of the one is the
theology of the other-the Calvin of 1559 is the Calvin of 1536. The
fact that at the age of twenty-six Calvin could publish a system of
theology at once so original and so profound -a system, moreover,
which with all his activity of intellect and love of truth he never had
occasion to modify in any essential particular-is one of the most
striking phenomena in the history of the human mind; and yet it is
but one of many illustrations of the man's marvelous clearness and
comprehensiveness of vision, and of his force and decision of char-
acter. His life from beginning to end was the consistent unfolding
of a single dominant principle - the unwavering pursuit of a single
controlling purpose. From his earliest youth the sense of duty was
all-supreme with him; he lived under a constant imperative—in awe
of, and in reverent obedience to, the will of a sovereign God; and his
theology is but the translation into language of that experience; its
translation by one of the world's greatest masters of logical thought
and of clear speech.
Calvin's great work was accompanied by a dedicatory epistle
addressed to King Francis I. , which is by common consent one of the
finest specimens of courteous and convincing apology in existence.
A brief extract from it will be found in the selections given below.
Soon after the publication of the 'Institutes,' Calvin's plans for a
quiet literary career were interrupted by a peremptory call to assist
in the work of reforming the Church and State of Geneva; and the
remainder of his life, with the exception of a brief interval of exile,
was spent in that city, at the head of a religious movement whose
influence was ultimately felt throughout all Western Europe. It is
true that Calvin was not the originating genius of the Reformation —
that he belonged only to the second generation of reformers, and
that he learned the Protestant faith from Luther. But he became
for the peoples of Western Europe what Luther was for Germany,
and he gave his own peculiar type of Protestantism—that type
which was congenial to his disposition and experience - to Switzer-
land, to France, to the Netherlands, to Scotland, and through the
Dutch, the English Puritans, and the Scotch Presbyterians, to large
portions of the New World. Calvin, to be sure, is not widely popu-
lar to-day even in those lands which owe him most, for he had
little of that human sympathy which glorifies the best thought and
life of the present age; but for all that, he has left his mark upon
the world, and his influence is not likely ever to be wholly out-
grown. His emphasis upon God's holiness made his followers scrupu-
lously, even censoriously pure; his emphasis upon God's will made
them stern and unyielding in the performance of what they believed
to be their duty; his emphasis upon God's majesty, paradoxical
## p. 3119 (#85) ############################################
JOHN CALVIN
3119
though it may seem at first sight, promoted in no small degree the
growth of civil and religious liberty, for it dwarfed all mere human
authority and made men bold to withstand the unlawful encroach-
ments of their fellows. Thus Calvin became a mighty force in the
world, though he gave the world far more of law than of gospel,
far more of Moses than of Christ.
Calvin's career as a writer began at an early day and continued
until his death. His pen was a ready one and was seldom idle. In
the midst of the most engrossing cares and occupations-the cares
and occupations of a preacher, a pastor, a teacher of theology, a
statesman, and a reformer to whom the Protestants of many lands
looked for inspiration and for counsel-he found time, though he
died at the early age of fifty-four, to produce works that to-day fill
more than threescore volumes, and all of which bear the unmistak-
able impress of a great mind. In addition to his 'Institutes,' theo-
logical and ethical tracts, and treatises, sermons, and epistles without
number, he wrote commentaries upon almost all the books of the
Bible; which for lucidity, for wide and accurate learning, and for
sound and ripe judgment, have never been surpassed. Among the
most characteristic and important of his briefer works are his vigor-
ous and effective 'Reply to Cardinal Sadolet,' who had endeavored
after Calvin's exile from Geneva in 1539 to win back the Genevese
to the Roman Church; his tract on The Necessity of Reforming the
Church; presented to the Imperial Diet at Spires, A. D. 1544, in the
cause of all who wish with Christ to reign'—an admirable statement
of the conditions which had made a reformation of the Church impera-
tively necessary, and had led to the great religious and ecclesiastical
revolution; another tract on The True Method of Giving Peace to
Christendom and Reforming the Church,'. marked by a beautiful
Christian spirit and permeated with sound practical sense; still
another containing Articles Agreed Upon by the Faculty of Sacred
Theology at Paris, with the Antidote'; and finally an 'Admonition
Showing the Advantages which Christendom might Derive from an
Inventory of Relics. ' Though Calvin was from boyhood up of a most
serious turn of mind, and though his writings, in marked contrast to
the writings of Luther, exhibit few if any traces of genial sponta-
neous humor, the last two works show that he knew how to employ
satire on occasion in a very telling way for the overthrow of error
and for the discomfiture of his opponents.
In addition to the services which Calvin rendered by his writings
to the cause of Christianity and of sacred learning, must be recog-
nized the lasting obligation under which as an author he put his
mother tongue. Whether he wrote in Latin or in French, his style
was always chaste, elegant, clear, and vigorous. His Latin compares
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JOHN CALVIN
favorably with the best models of antiquity; his French is a new
creation. The latter language indeed owes almost as much to Calvin
as the German language owes to Luther. He was unquestionably its
greatest master in the sixteenth century, and he did more than any
one else to fix its permanent character-to give it that exactness,
that lucidity, that purity and harmony of which it justly boasts.
Calvin's writings bear throughout the imprint of his character.
There appears in all of them the same horror of impurity and dis-
honor, the same stern sense of duty, the same respect for the sov-
ereignty of the Almighty, the same severe judgment of human fail-
ings. To read them is to breathe the tonic air of snow-clad heights;
but they are seldom if ever touched with the tender glow of human
feeling or transfigured with the radiance of creative imagination.
There is that in David, in Isaiah, in Paul, in Luther, which appeals
to every heart and makes their words immortal; but Calvin was
neither poet nor prophet,—the divine afflatus was not his,- and it is
not without reason that his writings, vigorous, forceful, profound, as
is their context, and pure and elegant as is their style, are read
to-day only by theologians or historians.
Archer Cushman
Mut
PREFATORY ADDRESS TO THE INSTITUTES›
T
FRANCIS, KING OF THE FRENCH, the most Christian Majesty,
the most Mighty and Illustrious Monarch, his Sovereign,—
John Calvin prays peace and salvation in Christ.
Sire: When I first engaged in this work, nothing was fur-
ther from my thoughts than to write what should afterwards be
presented to your Majesty. My intention was only to furnish a
kind of rudiments, by which those who feel some interest in
religion might be trained to true godliness. And I toiled at the
task chiefly for the sake of my countrymen the French, multi-
tudes of whom I perceived to be hungering and thirsting after
Christ, while very few seemed to have been duly imbued with
even a slender knowledge of him. That this was the object
which I had in view is apparent from the work itself, which is
written in a simple and elementary form, adapted for instruc-
tion.
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But when I perceived that the fury of certain bad men had
risen to such a height in your realm that there was no place in
it for sound doctrine, I thought it might be of service if I were
in the same work both to give instruction to my countrymen,
and also lay before your Majesty a Confession, from which you
may learn what the doctrine is that so inflames the rage of
those madmen who are this day with fire and sword troubling
your kingdom. For I fear not to declare that what I have here
given may be regarded as a summary of the very doctrine
which, they vociferate, ought to be punished with confiscation,
exile, imprisonment, and flames, as well as exterminated by land
and sea.
I am aware indeed how, in order to render our cause as
hateful to your Majesty as possible, they have filled your ears
and mind with atrocious insinuations; but you will be pleased of
your clemency to reflect that neither in word nor deed could
there
be any innocence, were it sufficient merely to accuse.
When
any one, with the view of exciting prejudice, observes
that this doctrine of which I am endeavoring to give your
Majesty an account has been condemned by the suffrages of all
the estates, and was long ago stabbed again and again by par-
tial sentences of courts of law, he undoubtedly says nothing
more than that it has sometimes been violently oppressed by the
power and faction of adversaries, and sometimes fraudulently
and insidiously overwhelmed by lies, cavils, and calumny. While
a cause is unheard, it is violence to pass sanguinary sentences
against it; it is fraud to charge it, contrary to its deserts, with
sedition and mischief.
That no one may suppose we are unjust in thus com-
plaining, you yourself, most illustrious Sovereign, can bear us
witness with what lying calumnies it is daily traduced in your
presence; as aiming at nothing else than to wrest the sceptres of
kings out of their hands, to overturn all tribunals and seats of
justice, to subvert all order and government, to disturb the peace
and quiet of society, to abolish all laws, destroy the distinctions
of rank and property, and in short turn all things upside down.
And yet that which you hear is but the smallest portion of what
is said; for among the common people are disseminated certain
horrible insinuations-insinuations which, if well founded, would
justify the whole world in condemning the doctrine with its
authors to a thousand fires and gibbets. Who can wonder that
VI-196
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JOHN CALVIN
the popular hatred is inflamed against it, when credit is given to
those most iniquitous accusations? See why all ranks unite with.
one accord in condemning our persons and our doctrine!
Carried away by this feeling, those who sit in judgment
merely give utterance to the prejudices which they have imbibed
at home, and think they have duly performed their part if they
do not order punishment to be inflicted on any one until con-
victed, either on his own confession, or on legal evidence. But
of what crime convicted? "Of that condemned doctrine," is the
answer. But with what justice condemned? The very evidence
of the defense was not to abjure the doctrine itself, but to main-
tain its truth. On this subject, however, not a whisper is
allowed.
It is plain indeed that we fear God sincerely and worship him
in truth, since, whether by life or by death, we desire his name
to be hallowed; and hatred herself has been forced to bear testi-
mony to the innocence and civil integrity of some of our people,
on whom death was inflicted for the very thing which deserved
the highest praise. But if any, under pretext of the gospel,
excite tumults (none such have as yet been detected in your
realm), if any use the liberty of the grace of God as a cloak for
licentiousness (I know of numbers who do), there are laws and
legal punishments by which they may be punished up to the
measure of their deserts; only in the mean time let not the
gospel of God be evil spoken of because of the iniquities of evil
men.
Sire, that you may not lend too credulous an ear to the accu-
sations of our enemies, their virulent injustice has been set before
you at sufficient length: I fear even more than sufficient, since
this preface has grown almost to the bulk of a full apology. My
object however was not to frame a defense, but only with a
view to the hearing of our cause, to mollify your mind, now
indeed turned away and estranged from us, I add, even in-
flamed against us, but whose good will, we are confident, we
should regain, would you but once with calmness and composure
read this our Confession, which we desire your Majesty to accept.
instead of a defense. But if the whispers of the malevolent so
possess your ear that the accused are to have no opportunity of
pleading their cause; if those vindictive furies, with your con-
nivance, are always to rage with bonds, scourgings, tortures,
maimings, and burnings-we indeed, like sheep doomed to
―――
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3123
slaughter, shall be reduced to every extremity; yet so that in
our patience we will possess our souls, and wait for the strong
hand of the Lord, which doubtless will appear in its own time,
and show itself armed, both to rescue the poor from affliction
and also take vengeance on the despisers, who are now exulting
so securely.
Most illustrious King, may the Lord, the King of kings, estab-
lish your throne in righteousness and your sceptre in equity.
BASLE, August 1st, 1536.
ELECTION AND PREDESTINATION
From the Institutes of the Christian Religion'
THE
HE human mind when it hears this doctrine of election can-
not restrain its petulance, but boils and rages as if aroused
by the sound of a trumpet. Many, professing a desire to
defend the Deity from an invidious charge, admit the doctrine
of election but deny that any one is reprobated (Bernard, in
'Die Ascensionis,' Serm. 2). This they do ignorantly and child-
ishly, since there could be no election without its opposite,
reprobation. God is said to set apart those whom he adopts for
salvation. It were most absurd to say that he admits others
fortuitously, or that they by their industry acquire what election
alone confers on a few. Those therefore whom God passes by
he reprobates, and that for no other cause but because he is
pleased to exclude them from the inheritance which he predes-
tines to his children. Nor is it possible to tolerate the petulance
of men in refusing to be restrained by the word of God, in
regard to his incomprehensible counsel, which even angels adore.
We have already been told that hardening is not less under
the immediate hand of God than mercy. Paul does not, after
the example of those whom I have mentioned, labor anxiously
to defend God by calling in the aid of falsehood; he only
reminds us that it is unlawful for the creature to quarrel with
its Creator. Then how will those who refuse to admit that any
are reprobated by God, explain the following words of Christ?
"Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall
be rooted up" (Matth. xv. 13). They are plainly told that all
whom the heavenly Father has not been pleased to plant as
sacred trees in his garden are doomed and devoted to destruc-
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JOHN CALVIN
tion. If they deny that this is a sign of reprobation, there is
nothing, however clear, that can be proved to them. But if
they will still murmur, let us in the soberness of faith rest con-
tented with the admonition of Paul, that it can be no ground of
complaint that God, "willing to show his wrath, and to make
his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels
of wrath fitted for destruction: and that he might make known
the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had
afore prepared unto glory" (Rom. ix. 22, 23). Let my readers
observe that Paul, to cut off all handle for murmuring and
detraction, attributes supreme sovereignty to the wrath and
power of God; for it were unjust that those profound judgments
which transcend all our powers of discernment should be sub-
jected to our calculation.
It is frivolous in our opponents to reply that God does not
altogether reject those whom in lenity he tolerates, but remains.
