He

purse more than four times heavier than the purse he took. started with forty-five shillings: he left with two hundred and fifteen. How was this accomplished? We shall shortly see.

The following description of Exeter College is taken from "A Pocket Companion for Oxford," published in the middle of the eighteenth century:-The front of Exeter College is 220 feet long, in the centre of which is a magnificent gate, with a tower over it. The building within chiefly consists of a large quadrangle, formed by the hall, the chapel, the rector's lodgings, and the chambers of the students. The gardens are neatly disposed, and, though within the town, have an airy and pleasant opening to the east. The library is well furnished with books in the several arts and sciences, and with a very valuable collection of the classics, given by Edward Richards, Esq. It also contains a large orrery, the gift of Thomas Blackall, Esq. The hall was built by Sir John Ackland, and the chapel by Dr Hakewell, Hakewell was a man of eminence. Having been appointed chaplain to Prince Charles, he deemed it his duty to attempt to convince his royal pupil that he would act wisely in abandoning his contemplated marriage with the Infanta of Spain. This so enraged Charles's father, that he ordered Hakewell to be arrested and imprisoned. Under the reign of Charles, however, he was promoted to the bishopric of Worcester, and was elected Rector of Exeter College. When the civil wars commenced, he submitted to the authority of Parliament, and retained his office as rector of the college till his death, in 1649. His chief work is a folio volume, on the "Power and Providence of God."

The founder of Exeter College was Walter Stapleton, Bishop of Exeter, Lord Treasurer of England, and Secretary of State to King Edward II., 1316. He founded a society of thirteen-that is, a rector and twelve fellows-one of whom, the chaplain, was to be appointed by the dean and chapter of Exeter; eight were to be elected out of the archdeaconries of Exeter, Totnes, and Barnstaple; and four out of the archdeaconry of Cornwall. Among the subsequent benefactors of Exeter College was Edmund Stafford, Bishop of Exeter, who settled two fellowships for the diocese of Sarum. Sir William Petre obtained a new charter and new statutes, and founded eight additional fellowships. Charles I. added one for Jersey and Guernsey; and Mrs Shiers added two more for Hertford and Surrey. The number of students was about eighty, and the visitor was the Bishop of Exeter.

Samuel Wesley entered this college as a servitor. A "servitor" means a scholar or student, who attends and waits on another scholar or student, and receives, as a compensation, his maintenance. Such was the position of young Wesley. There was no help for it. He was determined to secure the benefits of a university education; and, in the absence of money and of friends, he became a servant to some other scholar in order to find himself bread. There was no disgrace in this; and yet, it is not difficult to imagine that such a "servitor," notwithstanding his cleverness, would be subjected to taunts from beardless youths, who, in all respects excepting one, were vastly his inferiors. Here was a young man, twenty-one years of age, respectably connected, highly educated, but well-nigh as poor as poverty could make him, resolved upon the acquisition of academic fame; and, in the struggle, battling with his innate pride, and patiently, if not cheerfully, submitting to annoyances for the sake of obtaining that upon which his heart was set. Difficulties, which would have discouraged others, aroused him; and he resolved to conquer or to die.

Samuel Wesley was a servitor; and he was also entered as pauper scholaris, which was the lowest of the four conditions of members of the Exeter College. He began as low as he could begin; but struggling with discouragements increased his strength instead of lessening it. He rose superior to his obstacles. Besides attending to the humiliating duties of a servitor, he composed exercises for those who had more money than mind, and gave instructions to those who wished to profit by his lessons; and thus, by unwearied toil and great frugality, the poor, fatherless, and friendless scholar, not only managed to support himself, but when he retired from Oxford in 1688, he was seven pounds fifteen shillings richer than he was when he first entered it in 1683. Who can tell his struggles during the five years of privation spent at this great seat of learning? His servitorial services might obtain him bread; but what about the payment of his fees, the purchase of his clothes, and the procuring of fire? The first winter of his residence at Oxford, was one of the severest recorded in the annals of English history. Calamy tells us that "the Thames was frozen over, and the ice so firm and strong, that there were hundreds of booths and shops upon it. Coaches plied as freely from the Temple Stairs to Westminster, as if they had gone upon the land. All sorts of diversions were practised on the congealed waters, and

F

even an ox was roasted whole on the river, over against Whitehall." Such was the bitter commencement of Samuel Wesley's collegiate life; and, at the most, he only had about two pounds, in his almost needless purse, to meet it.

"Necessity is the mother of invention." It was this, probably, that induced Samuel Wesley to publish his first work in 1685. Whilst he was at Mr Veal's and Mr Morton's academies, he wrote a number of boyish rhymes, several of which were recited from the platforms of those academies, and gained applause from the tutors and pupils present. Other poetical pieces of a similar description were written after he went to Oxford; and the whole, during the second year of his residence, were published under the title of "Maggots; or Poems on several subjects never before handled, by a Scholar, London. Printed for John Dunton, at the sign of the Black Raven, near the Royal Exchange, 1685."

This book will neither instruct the reader, nor contribute to the author's literary fame; and yet, because it was the first book published by an eminent literary man; and because it is now so extremely scarce, that hardly one Wesleyan student in a thousand has ever seen it, a brief description of it may be interesting, if not useful.

The book begins with an anonymous portrait of the author, crowned with laurel, and having a Maggot seated on his brow. Beneath the portrait are the following lines:

"In his own defence the author writes,
Because when this foul maggot bites,
He ne'er can rest in quiet :
Which makes him make so sad a face,
He'd beg your worship, or your grace,
Unsight, unseen, to buy it."

The book consists of 172 pages; and is dedicated "To the honoured Mr H. D, Head Master of the Free School in D, in the county of D-" "Mr H. D-" was Mr Henry Dolling, who was Samuel Wesley's schoolmaster at Dorchester. In the dedication, he informs us that this book is his "first formed birth," and, in his epistle to the reader, he says that "all the Maggots are the natural issue of his own brain pan, born and bred there, and only there." In reply to the objection, that the work is "light, vain, frothy, and below the gravity of a man, at least of a Christian," he says, if the objector will lend him a hand

ful of beard, and be at the charge of grafting it on, he will promise a speedy and thorough reformation. Besides, he argues, that time ought to be allowed for recreation as well as work; and, moreover, he hopes that he has written nothing to make even himself or his reader blush. He was never vain enough to think that his "Maggots" would procure him much reputation; neither was he ambitious of seeing his worthy name glittering in a Term Catalogue; and therefore he thought it not worth his while to throw away better time in making his book more perfect.*

Many of the poems flash with wit, and are most pleasantly expressed. Sometimes there is a want of delicacy; but that, perhaps, is not so much the fault of the man, as of the age in which he wrote. Southey says, "His imagination seems to have been playful and diffuse; and had he written during his son's celebrity, some of his pieces might perhaps have been condemned by the godly as profane." Dr A. Clarke demurs to this, and not without reason. There are in the "Maggots" what the present refined age would call indelicate and coarse expressions; but, in this respect, Samuel Wesley was only imitating Dryden and the standard writers of the period in which he lived.

Several of the poems are levelled against the vices of the day, and are scorchingly severe; but it would scarcely answer any good purpose to reproduce them.

"the

We merely give one extract, taken from the piece on Tobacco Pipe," and which is a fair specimen of the entire book. Perhaps, also, it indicates that he had already fallen into the unfortunate habit of smoking, which will have to be noticed in due time :—

"In these raw mornings, when I'm freezing ripe,

What can compare with a tobacco pipe?

Primed, cock'd, and touch't, 'twould better heat a man

Than ten Bath faggots, or Scotch warming pan.

For the toothache 'tis a specific aid,

For every amorous boy, or lovesick maid.
Sometimes another way to work 'twill go,

Up spouts a deluge from the abyss below;—

This physic is more safe, (though not so fine,)

Than bumpers crown'd too oft with sparkling wine.

A glass is not a better cure than that,

For care, or toothache, both of which would kill a cat.

For the titles of the poems, see Appendix A.

Surely when Prometheus climb'd above the poles,
Slyly to learn their art of making souls,
When of his fire he fretting Jove did wipe,

He stole it thence in a tobacco pipe;

Which, predisposed to live, as down he ran,

By the soul's plastic power, from clay was turn'd to man."

In the "Dunciad" of Alexander Pope, there is a line which seems to refer to Samuel Wesley's "Maggots." The reference is not clear and undeniable; but still it has an air of probability. In his first book, line 53, Pope writes:

"Here she beholds the chaos dark and deep,

Where nameless somethings in their causes sleep,
'Till genial Jacob, or a warm third day
Call forth each mass, a poem or a play.

How hints, like spawn, scarce quick in embryo lie!
How new-born nonsense first is taught to cry!
Maggots half form'd, in rhyme, exactly meet,

And learn to crawl upon poetic feet!

Here one poor word a hundred clenches makes,
And ductile dulness new meanders takes;
There motley images her fancy strike,
Figures ill-pair'd, and similes unlike."

This first book of Samuel Wesley's was published by the eccentric John Dunton, who was born three years before Wesley, and therefore was now a young publisher, of not more than twenty-six years of age. His father was a clergyman, and he was intended for the same profession; but, being found too volatile, he was apprenticed to Thomas Parkhurst, the most eminent Presbyterian bookseller in the three kingdoms. Wesley was acquainted with Dunton before he went to Oxford. A year previous to his removal thither, he was present at Dunton's wedding, and presented to the happy couple an epithalamium. The object of Dunton's choice was Elizabeth, one of the daughters of Dr Samuel Annesley, and sister of her who six years afterwards became the wife of Wesley. Dunton commenced business near the Royal Exchange. His affairs prospered for the first three years, until the stagnation cast upon trade by the defeat of Monmouth in the west. In the same. year that he published Wesley's "Maggots," he sustained some serious losses, and went to America to repair his fortune. Twelve months afterwards, he came back to his wife and to her father; but, on account of his pecuniary embarrassments, he was, for nearly

Edition 1729.