Pages From an Old Volume of Life

O >> Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. >> Pages From an Old Volume of Life


This mention led to a friendly correspondence between the writer and one
of the professors in the theological school at Andover, and finally to
the publication of a brief essay, which, for some reason, had been
withheld from publication for more than a century. Its title is
"Observations concerning the Scripture OEconomy of the Trinity and
Covenant of Redemption. By Jonathan Edwards." It contains thirty-six
pages and a half, each small page having about two hundred words. The
pages before the reader will be found to average about three hundred and
twenty-five words. An introduction and an appendix by the editor,
Professor Egbert C. Smyth, swell the contents to nearly a hundred pages,
but these additions, and the circumstance that it is bound in boards,
must not lead us to overlook the fact that the little volume is nothing
more than a pamphlet in book's clothing.

A most extraordinary performance it certainly is, dealing with the
arrangements entered into by the three persons of the Trinity, in as bald
and matter-of-fact language and as commercial a spirit as if the author
had been handling the adjustment of a limited partnership between three
retail tradesmen. But, lest a layman's judgment might be considered
insufficient, the treatise was submitted by the writer to one of the most
learned of our theological experts,--the same who once informed a church
dignitary, who had been attempting to define his theological position,
that he was a Eutychian,--a fact which he seems to have been no more
aware of than M. Jourdain was conscious that he had been speaking prose
all his life. The treatise appeared to this professor anti-trinitarian,
not in the direction of Unitarianism, however, but of Tritheism. Its
anthropomorphism affected him like blasphemy, and the paper produced in
him the sense of "great disgust," which its whole character might well
excite in the unlearned reader.

All this is, however, of little importance, for this is not the work of
Edwards referred to by the present writer in his previous essay. The
tract recently printed as a volume may be the one referred to by Dr.
Bushnell, in 1851, but of this reference by him the writer never heard
until after his own essay was already printed. The manuscript of the
"Observations" was received by Professor Smyth, as he tells us in his
introduction, about fifteen years ago, from the late Reverend William T.
Dwight, D. D., to whom it was bequeathed by his brother, the Reverend Dr.
Sereno E. Dwight.

But the reference of the present writer was to another production of the
great logician, thus spoken of in a quotation from "the accomplished
editor of the Hartford 'Courant,'" to be found in Professor Smyth's
introduction:

"It has long been a matter of private information that Professor Edwards
A. Park, of Andover, had in his possession an published manuscript of
Edwards of considerable extent, perhaps two thirds as long as his
treatise on the will. As few have ever seen the manuscript, its contents
are only known by vague reports.... It is said that it contains a
departure from his published views on the Trinity and a modification of
the view of original sin. One account of it says that the manuscript
leans toward Sabellianism, and that it even approaches Pelagianism."

It was to this "suppressed" manuscript the present writer referred, and
not to the slender brochure recently given to the public. He is bound,
therefore, to say plainly that to satisfy inquirers who may be still in
doubt with reference to Edwards's theological views, it would be
necessary to submit this manuscript, and all manuscripts of his which
have been kept private, to their inspection, in print, if possible, so
that all could form their own opinion about it or them.

The whole matter may be briefly stated thus: Edwards believed in an
eternity of unimaginable horrors for "the bulk of mankind." His
authority counts with many in favor of that belief, which affects great
numbers as the idea of ghosts affected Madame de Stall: "Je n'y crois
pas, mais je les crains." This belief is one which it is infinitely
desirable to the human race should be shown to be possibly, probably, or
certainly erroneous. It is, therefore, desirable in the interest of
humanity that any force the argument in its favor may derive from
Edwards's authority should be weakened by showing that he was capable of
writing most unwisely, and if it should be proved that he changed his
opinions, or ran into any "heretical" vagaries, by using these facts
against the validity of his judgment. That he was capable of writing
most unwisely has been sufficiently shown by the recent publication of
his "Observations." Whether he, anywhere contradicted what were generally
accepted as his theological opinions, or how far he may have lapsed into
heresies, the public will never rest satisfied until it sees and
interprets for itself everything that is open to question which may be
contained in his yet unpublished manuscripts. All this is not in the
least a personal affair with the writer, who, in the course of his
studies of Edwards's works, accidentally heard, from the unimpeachable
sources sufficiently indicated, the reports, which it seems must have
been familiar to many, that there was unpublished matter bearing on the
opinions of the author through whose voluminous works he had been
toiling. And if he rejoiced even to hope that so wise a man as Edwards
has been considered, so good a man as he is recognized to have been, had,
possibly in his changes of opinion, ceased to think of children as
vipers, and of parents as shouting hallelujahs while their lost darlings
were being driven into the flames, where is the theologian who would not
rejoice to hope so with him or who would be willing to tell his wife or
his daughter that he did not?

The real, vital division of the religious part of our Protestant
communities is into Christian optimists and Christian pessimists. The
Christian optimist in his fullest development is characterized by a
cheerful countenance, a voice in the major key, an undisguised enjoyment
of earthly comforts, and a short confession of faith. His theory of the
universe is progress; his idea of God is that he is a Father with all the
true paternal attributes, of man that he is destined to come into harmony
with the key-note of divine order, of this earth that it is a training
school for a better sphere of existence. The Christian pessimist in his
most typical manifestation is apt to wear a solemn aspect, to speak,
especially from the pulpit, in the minor key, to undervalue the lesser
enjoyments of life, to insist on a more extended list of articles of
belief. His theory of the universe recognizes this corner of it as a
moral ruin; his idea of the Creator is that of a ruler whose pardoning
power is subject to the veto of what is called "justice;" his notion of
man is that he is born a natural hater of God and goodness, and that his
natural destiny is eternal misery. The line dividing these two great
classes zigzags its way through the religious community, sometimes
following denominational layers and cleavages, sometimes going, like a
geological fracture, through many different strata. The natural
antagonists of the religious pessimists are the men of science,
especially the evolutionists, and the poets. It was but a conditioned
prophecy, yet we cannot doubt what was in Milton's mind when he sang, in
one of the divinest of his strains, that

"Hell itself will pass away,
And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day."

And Nature, always fair if we will allow her time enough, after giving
mankind the inspired tinker who painted the Christian's life as that of a
hunted animal, "never long at ease," desponding, despairing, on the verge
of self-murder,--painted it with an originality, a vividness, a power and
a sweetness, too, that rank him with the great authors of all time,--kind
Nature, after this gift, sent as his counterpoise the inspired ploughman,
whose songs have done more to humanize the hard theology of Scotland than
all the rationalistic sermons that were ever preached. Our own Whittier
has done and is doing the same thing, in a far holier spirit than Burns,
for the inherited beliefs of New England and the country to which New
England belongs. Let me sweeten these closing paragraphs of an essay not
meaning to hold a word of bitterness with a passage or two from the
lay-preacher who is listened to by a larger congregation than any man who
speaks from the pulpit. Who will not hear his words with comfort and
rejoicing when he speaks of "that larger hope which, secretly cherished
from the times of Origen and Duns Scotus to those of Foster and Maurice,
has found its fitting utterance in the noblest poem of the age?"

It is Tennyson's "In Memoriam" to which he refers, and from which he
quotes four verses, of which this is the last:

"Behold! we know not anything
I can but trust that good shall fall
At last,--far off,--at last, to all,
And every winter change to spring."

If some are disposed to think that the progress of civilization and the
rapidly growing change of opinion renders unnecessary any further effort
to humanize "the Gospel of dread tidings;" if any believe the doctrines
of the Longer and Shorter Catechism of the Westminster divines are so far
obsolete as to require no further handling; if there are any who thank
these subjects have lost their interest for living souls ever since they
themselves have learned to stay at home on Sundays, with their cakes and
ale instead of going to meeting,--not such is Mr. Whittier's opinion,
as we may infer from his recent beautiful poem, "The Minister's
Daughter." It is not science alone that the old Christian pessimism has
got to struggle with, but the instincts of childhood, the affections of
maternity, the intuitions of poets, the contagious humanity of the
philanthropist,--in short, human nature and the advance of civilization.
The pulpit has long helped the world, and is still one of the chief
defences against the dangers that threaten society, and it is worthy now,
as it always has been in its best representation, of all love and honor.
But many of its professed creeds imperatively demand revision, and the
pews which call for it must be listened to, or the preacher will by and
by find himself speaking to a congregation of bodiless echoes by and by
find himself speaking to a congregation of bodiless echoes.