Contrast with these, others, fighting under the same banners, and who contended against similar foes, but were by nature equally insufficient of themselves; yet these were sincere, girded with truth. Behold Daniel and his three noble associates, who would neither relinquish, nor defer, nor even conceal their religion, but presented a firm crest to the insulting foe; and, having faith unfeigned, love without dissimulation, and a spirit without guile, no poisoned arrows could pierce them, no furious threatenings could divert them; and when they had passed through the furnace, "their clothes did not so much as smell of the fire." In like manner the apostles could say in the midst of much tribulation, "Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world." Let every Christian soldier have "his loins girt about with truth," and "the feeble shall be as David, and David as an angel of God!"
Clapham. J. E.
THE LATE CHRISTOPHER SMART.
To the Editor of the Baptist Magazine.
A writer in the April Number of your Miscellany, influenced by the genius displayed in the verses of Mr. Smart therein quoted, requested to learn more of the history of the poet. If the following particulars are considered worthy of insertion, I will also offer for your future pages the biography of another literary character. The present narrative of the incidents in the life of Mr. Christopher Smart presents a great mind under the influence of a common but dangerous evil, and displays powerful arguments to call off the Christian from that pernicious habit which brought ruin on him. This will be seen in the sequel.
Christopher Smart was born at Shipbourne, in Kent, April 11, 1722. His father was possessed of almost £300 a year, from an estate in that neighbourhood. His mother was a Miss Gilpin, of the family of the celebrated reformer, Bernard Gilpin, by the father's side. His grandfather had been a prebendary of Durham, in the reign of Charles I., and was accounted by the puritan party as the proto-martyr in their cause, having been degraded and deprived of all his ecclesiastical preferments, fined £500, and imprisoned eleven years. When restored to liberty by the parliament, he appeared as a witness against Archbishop Laud: the libel for which he suffered was written in Latin verse, and was published in 1643.
The family estate at Shipbourne was, at the death of his father, sold at a considerable loss to pay his debts, and the widow and family were thus left destitute. His father was a man of liberal education, and probably communicated to his son a taste for literature; and to the same source may possibly be ascribed that train of pious reflections which appeared so conspicuous in many of his poetical pieces.
Smart was born earlier than the usual period of gestation, which might occasion a tenderness of constitution. His taste for poetry is said to have appeared when he was only four years old, in an extempore effusion which has not been preserved, but which is said to have indicated a relish for verse, and an ear for numbers. He was educated at Maidstone until he was eleven years old, at which time his father died, and his mother was induced to send him to Durham, where he might enjoy the advantages of a good school, change of air, and, what in his circumstances became desirable, the notice and protection of his father's relations.
Young Smart was cordially received at Raby Castle by Lord Barnard, and also obtained the friendship of the Hon. Mrs. Hope, and the more substantial patronage of the Duchess of Cleveland, who allowed him £40 a year until her death in 1742. It was probably owing to the liberality of Lord Barnard that, after he had acquired very considerable reputation at Durham School, he was sent to Cambridge in his seventeenth year, and admitted at Pembroke Hall October 30, 1739.
At college he was much more distinguished for his poetical effort and classical taste, than for an ambition to excel in the usual routine of academical studies, and soon became a favourite with such of his contemporaries as were gay and licentious. His imprudence involved him in difficulties; and his difficulties, not being quickly removed, induced an habitual neglect of pecuniary matters, which adhered to him throughout life. His pursuit of convivial enjoyments, and frequent excess, formed the chief blot in his character.