Critical review 02

This is the rest of the critical review of Morgan's biography from 1845:

Among the class some of whom we have thus briefly noted, John Elias stood forward in acknowledged, though by no means in such transcendent and indisputable pre-eminence as a preacher, as big exclusive fame in England would seem to imply. In other qualities of character, necessary for a leader and ruler of the people, he was greatly inferior to several of those whose names we have mentioned. We make these remarks, not to deprecate the worth of this great and good man, but to correct a misconception which this volume is adapted to create, - that Mr. Elias was a sort of giant among dwarfs, a solitary form of grandeur and devotion, around which all his brethren, - as if they were at best only men of clever mediocrity, are to be grouped and arranged, in a position of quite submissive and secondary importance. This error of the work has been already kindly rebuked, in an able Welsh periodical, conducted by a number of gentlemen exclusively connected with that body of Christians of which Mr. Elias was so conspicuous an ornament.

With this abatement, however, we have no exceptions to take to the language of eulogy and admiration, in which the subject of this memoir is spoken of throughout its pages. He was indeed a man of whom any country might well be proud - nor is it easy to overrate the importance of the services he rendered to his native land - a man whose name will long be a word of magic significance to the pious mountaineers of Wales. We must refer our readers to the volume before us, for a fuller account of his life and character.

The author of this memoir is a worthy and pious clergyman of the Established Church, whose great simplicity of mind, and catholic liberality of sentiment, cannot fail to commend his labours to our respectful estimation. The anxiety which Mr. Morgan has shown, to rescue the memory of several of his illustrious countrymen from obscurity, is deserving of all admiration; and the zeal, diligence, and conscientiousness, with which he has discharged his biographical duties, are everywhere obviously apparent. Nor can we overlook the utter absence of all sectarian bitterness or bigotry, by which he is distinguished, at a time when so many of his brethren are almost beside themselves with the intoxicating fumes of spiritual and official arrogance. Beyond this, however, our commendations cannot go. We should do violence to our own critical conscience, if we allowed it to be supposed, that Mr. Morgan's other qualifications for the task he has undertaken are equal to his pious ardour and good intentions. - But they are by no means so; and we sympathise, we confess, with the fears, which we know many of our Welsh brethren entertain, that this book will not only convey a very imperfect impression of Mr. Elias's character and preaching to the English public, but will also tend to perpetuate rather than correct the false conception as to the nature of Welsh preaching in general, which we apprehend prevails very extensively in this country. The fact is, that though Mr. Morgan is a most excellent man, and is actuated by the best motives and spirit, he seems to us singularly deficient in faculty, and especially that kind of faculty requisite to apprehend and delineate such a character as John Elias. To transfer to the pages of a book anything like a living picture of a great popular orator, is one of the most difficult of tasks, and rendered, of course, still more so, when it is to be done through the medium of another language. It requires that there should exist between the subject and his biographer at least such points of similarity, as would bring the two minds into some degree of sympathy. But Mr. Morgan's mind, on the contrary, appears to be, in almost all respects, the exact antipode of Mr. Elias's. The contrast, indeed, is almost ludicrous, between the tame, creeping, common-place style of the memoir, and the daring, vehement, fiery spirit of the man whom it professes to commemorate. It is as if one saw the patient, ponderous, slow-paced ox, yoked with the war-horse, whose neck is clothed with thunder, who paweth in the valley and saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha. Mr. Morgan's attempts, therefore, to describe Mr. Elias's preaching and character, consist of little more than vague and impotent exclamations of wonder and admiration, and the specimens he has given of his manner of speaking are both ill-chosen, and most imperfectly represented. As a sample, both of the style and strain of sentiment in which the work is written, we may take the first few sentences of the volume.

"I feel, in entering upon this very important work, my inadequacy and insufficiency. I have frequently, while composing it, sought the Lord's aid and direction. I trust that he has heard my petitions, and favoured me with the guidance of his Spirit, - a blessing which was so much enjoyed by the subject of this memoir. May the following pages be attended with the Divine blessing to the reader! Great and remarkable men have appeared in every period of the Christian church, filling important situations and becoming eminently useful. The Lord is sovereign in thus placing and endowing his servants, as well as in every other work. Very few have been so gifted by him as Elias. He was indeed a rare monument of the Lord's providential care; he was favoured with extraordinary qualifications for the ministry, and made very useful in his day and generation. The memory of the wise, the pious, and the useful, especially such a man as Elias, is truly blessed, and ought to be preserved and made known for the benefit of the present and future generations."

And so twaddles the good Mr. Morgan, through several pages of this book. Happily, however, the volume contains contributions from several pens far better qualified to do justice to the subject, than that of the worthy biographer himself. Especially is there a most spirited and graphic sketch by Mr. Thomas, a gentleman who has gained great celebrity, by winning several high prizes in the Bardic contests of his country.

With all its imperfections, therefore, we venture to recommend the volume to our readers, as being the best because it is the only formal attempt made to convey to the English public some idea of the nature of Welsh eloquence. We trust, indeed, the time is not far distant, when some one competent to the task, will undertake to supply this desideratum, as we have a profound and deliberate conviction, that the art of popular preaching is incomparably better understood and practised among the Welsh, than among ourselves.