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EDITOR'S NOTICE.

"The Complaint of Despair," will appear in our next. If the author has not as yet yielded to that fate which he seems so anxious of meeting; if he has ceased to feel the subduing influence which not only despair, but contending elements seem to have exercised over him: if "the star of his hope" has once more beamed upon him, and given back the raptures of his happier days, we should be extremely happy to be favoured with a continuance of his communications.

“The Half Hang it,” in our next.

C. S. will receive a private communication from us in a few days.

"The Song of the Gathering," will appear as early as possible.

Locked in, or Dramatic Horrors," and the "Blind Widow's Son," are under consideration.

Miarane, in our next.

UNIV. OF CALIPORA

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EUROPEAN MAGAZINE,

AND

LONDON REVIEW.

OCTOBER 1823.

MEMOIR

OF THE

REV. EDWARD IRVING, A. M.

(With a Portrait taken from life, engraved by James Thomson.)

THE subject of our present memoir is the most popular preacher of the day, and yet there is evidently no preacher whose intellectual powers and style of eloquence are less understood. Whatever may be our opinion of his merits as an orator, we deem it our duty to gratify our readers with his portrait, because we consider that the most popular characters are always the most interesting subjects for painting, whether their popularity be the result of real merit or usurped reputation; for it is a curious phenomenon in human nature, that whoever, or whatever once succeeds in attracting public attention will continue to attract it after it has been demonstrated over and over, that the original cause of attraction had never an existence. Mr. Irving owes all his popularity to his supposed merits as an orator; but let it be ever so clearly demonstrated that these merits are merely imaginary, that his taste, and style, and thoughts, and language, are equally false, yet the Caledonian Chapel would be more frequented than any other in London; for even he who felt convinced that his eloquence is of a spurious character would still feel desirous of seeing a man of whom so much has been said, both in public and in private.

We have observed in our Number for July, that Mr. Irving" is rather less than thirty years of age, about

six feet high:" we have since been informed that he is six feet, two inches; a difference which, though trifling in itself, is not trifling as regards those who have never seen him;

for every man endeavours to figure to himself a correct image of a celebrated character or writer, "with other particulars," as the Spectator observes," of the like nature, which conduce very much to the right understanding of an author." We have noticed many other particulars of him in the number alluded to, which it must be unnècessary to repeat here.

Of his life and parentage, we can only say that he is the second son of a respectable family at Annan, in Dumfrieshire. His parents are still living, and enjoy, no doubt, all those pleasing and gratifying emotions which parental affection naturally derive from the celebrity of their offspring. He has a younger brother, who is, at the present moment, studying in the London hospitals, and four sisters. His elder brother we understand died lately in India. We know not whether mathematical knowledge has any necessary connection with divinity, but Mr. Irving, though originally intended for the ministry, has deemed it either a science fitted to relax the severity of his religious labours in his retired hours, or an auxiliary in developing, illustrating, or demonstrating the

sacred truths of the gospel. Accordingly we find, from his early proficiency in the science of demonstra tion, that he had been appointed to conduct a mathematical school at Haddington, in his seventeenth year, by the Professor at the University of Edinburgh. He resided at Had dington three years, whence he was removed to Kilkardy, to co-operate in the higher classes of literature. He was, we are not exactly certain how many years after,-appointed assistant to Dr. Chalmers, of Glasgow. The Rev. Mr. Mac Naughton having been removed last year from the church of the Caledonian AsyJum, in Cross-street, Hatton-garden, Mr. Irving was invited to London by the elders, but met with some opposition from his ignorance of the Gaelic, it being required that a sermon should be preached every Sunday afternoon in that language. It was so arranged, however, that Mr. Lees was appointed to fulfil this part of the duty, and an engagement made with Mr. Irving for five years, at £150 a year in addition to the seat-rents. Though this engagement could not be considered fucrative, Mr.Irving eagerly embraced it, his chief object being a residence in the Metropolis: whether this desire arose from a consciousness of his own merits, and the fame which he anticipated from the exercise of strong intellectual powers, or whether he perceived that the fame of an orator did not arise solely from the possession of these powers, and that there were other means of gaining the attention, and commanding the admiration of an audience, or whether he was exclusively governed by a thirst for the salvation of souls, and considered London the' best field for the exercise of his apostolic fervor and religious zeal, or whether motives of a private nature influenced his determinations, we neither dare nor can venture to assert; but certain we are, that whatever may have been the motive, Mr. Irving made a most happy, and successful election. His success has far exceed ed all that his most sanguine wishes could anticipate, unless he had indulged in wishes which spurned the ridged confines, within which reason and probability love to encircle themselves, One of the most curious

features in his character appears to be, that he belongs to that species or order of spirits which can neither be analyzed nor explained. No one knows what to make of him. To some he appears to be clothed in raiments of light, and the glory of the highest heavens seems beaming around him: to others he is an angel of darkness, hurling penal fire, and destruction, and desolation around him. What kind of man then must he be whose character is so inscrutable, so involved in the labyrinths of metaphysical obscurity? Is he one of those great characters whom Dr. Johnson says, "we admire but cannot love?" It would seem so; for there is something fearful in a character that cannot be analyzed; and fear, according to Burke, is the true source of the sublime, and sublimity always commands admiration. But how are we to dispose of a question which naturally presents itself on this occasion, namely, whether it be the character of the Gospel to terrify us into virtue, or to gain us over to its mild dominion by unfolding its charms, by displaying all the kinder emotions, fonder sympathies, endearing affections, inspiring raptures, divine recollections, hallowed determinations, serene, tranquil and divine composure of mind which it awakens or establishes in the breasts of its votaries. These are feelings;this is a state of mind which never has and never will be felt by him who is terrified into virtue; who avoids evil, not because he dislikes it, but because he is fearful of the consequences. Into such a bosom the sacred glow of virtuous emotions has never entered: he is neither a favourite of God or man. If, then, it be not the character of the Gospel to terrify us into virtue, if it loves rather to gain us over to it by dwelling on its milder and ennobling attractions, what are we to make of all these terrific denunciations, of all that mysterious and fearful language in which Mr. Irving is said to clothe the sacred truths of the Gospel? Is this the character of his eloquence or is it not; and, if it is, ought it be his character? These are questions which we have not seen discussed by any of the numerous commentators who have either enthroned him on a height above all

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