Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Selections From the Writings of the Rev. John Wesley, M. A., Sometime Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford
This desire to produce cheap and plain publications naturally de termined the style of their composition. Wesley tried to avoid dulness, verbosity, and obscurity.* He loved brevity, and regarded a great book as a great evil, remarking once, I believe if angels were to write books, we should have very few folios. T He culti vated a somewhat Puritan simplicity. In the preface to his Ser mons (1746. Works, i, xviii) he said Nothing here appears in an elaborate, elegant, or oratorical dress. I design plain truth for plain pe0ple: therefore, of set purpose, I abstain from all nice and philosophical speculations; from all perplexed and intricate reason ings; and, as far as possible, from even the show of learning, nu less in sometimes citing the original Scriptures. And in publish ing the later Sermons (1788. Works, ii, iv) I dare no more write in a fine style than wear a fine coat Let who will admire the French frippery; I am still for plain, sound English. His language. Especially in the earliest period, lacks ?exibility and richness. Formed on classic models, his style seems sometimes stiff and stilted. Practice, however, made him more nearly perfect. From being like the fencer whose regard is for the handling of his weapon and the rules of the play rather than for the disarming of his opponent. He came into the ease and energy of the later days. He is not wanting in imagination and picturesqueness; but the distinctive traits of his best writing are still his careful and correct English, his apt use of words, his compactness of statement, his Clear and logic al method. Mr. Leslie Stephen remarks: We admire his Wes ley's] sense and his sincerity. He remains on the plane of terse, vigorous sense. But it is also true that his eloquence never soars above the ground; if there is no bombast, there is little more rhetoric than may be found in a vigorous leading article; and if he wins our respect, he does not excite our admiration, or add to the stores of English rhetorical prose.1 But Mr. Stephen justly recognizes that Wesley's writings are not to be judged as mere pieces of rhetorical composition, but as a means to a direct practical end.§ He best appreciates them who regards them not simplyas literature, but as the literary expression of a splendid per sonality, and one of the instruments for the achievement of a mag nificent work.
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