Wesley Corpus

Tuesday, 5. I rode on to Plymouth-Dock, and preached on, "Love is the bond of perfectness." What pity that any thing short of this should usurp the name of religion Last week I read over, as I rode, great part of Homer's Odyssey. I always imagined it was, like Milton's "Paradise Regained," The last faint effort of an expiring Musa But how was I mistaken How far has Homer's latter poem the pre-eminence over the former ! It is not, indeed, without its blemishes; among which, perhaps, one might reckon his making Ulysses swim nine days and nine nights without suste nance; the incredible manner of his escape from Polyphemus, (unless the goat was as strong as an ox,) and the introducing Minerva at every turn, without any dignus vindice nodus. Difficult point, that requires a serious solution.-EDIT. Sept. 1769. JOURNAL. 379 But his numerous beauties make large amends for these. Was ever man so happy in his descriptions, so exact and consistent in his characters, and so natural in telling a story? He like wise continually inserts the finest strokes of morality; (which I cannot find in Virgil;) on all occasions recommending the fear of God, with justice, mercy, and truth. In this only he is inconsistent with himself: He makes his hero say,- Wisdom never lies; And, Him, on whate'er pretence, that lies can tell, My soul abhors him as the gates of hell. Meantime, he himself, on the slightest pretence, tells deliberate lies over and over; nay, and is highly commended for so doing, even by the Goddess of Wisdom I rode to Collumpton; and on Thursday rested at Tiverton. Friday, 8. I preached about nine at Taunton, and then rode on to Bridgewater, where the preaching had been discontinued for some years. It was supposed there would be much disturbance; but there was none at all. The very Gentry (all but two or three young women) behaved with good sense and decency. This afternoon I went to the top of Brent-Hill: I know not, I ever before saw such a prospect. Westward, one may see to the mouth of the Bristol Channel; and the three other ways, as far as the eye can reach.