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University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
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The Major Religious Poems Of Christopher Smart
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The Major Religious Poems Of Christopher Smart
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Content
THE MAJOR RELIGIOUS POEMS
OF CHRISTOPHER SMART
by
Francis Daly Adams
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(English)
September 1965
UNIVERSITY O F S O U T H E R N CALIFORNIA
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY PARK
LOS ANGELES. CA LIFO R N IA 9 0 0 0 7
This dissertation, written by
......................... A d a m s ...........
under the direction of Ms— Dissertation Com
mittee, and approved by all its members, has
been presented to and accepted by the Graduate
School, in partial fulfillm ent of requirements
fo r the degree of
D O C T O R O F P H IL O S O P H Y
........
( d f Dean
Date S.ep.tenab.er.,..1.9.65......................
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE
Chairman
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
INTRODUCTION......................................... 1
Chapter
I. THE SEATON P O E M S ............................ 7
II. A SONG TO DAVID.............................. 61
III. JUBILATE AGNO................................ 124
LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED.............................. 212
ii
INTRODUCTION
Christopher Smart (1722-1771) wrote two poems that
make him worthy of our serious attention, the Song to David
and Jubilate Agno. Both of them are intimately related to
the preeminent fact in his biography, the religious mania
that interrupted his career as a London literary wit and
sent him into mental asylums for eight years.
Smart had begun his life brilliantly. As a student at
Cambridge, he had been honored as "Scholar of the Univer
sity," and later he had taught philosophy and rhetoric
there. He also had been commended by Alexander Pope for
his Latin translation of the elder poet's "Ode on Saint
Cecelia's Day."
Going to London, he embarked on a literary career, and
quickly became more successful than most of his contempo
raries . He started by doing hack work for the famous pub
lisher, Thomas Newbery, whose step-daughter he later mar
ried; and he also built a reputation as a serious poet with
1
his religious pieces that won the Cambridge Seaton prize
five times in six years.
In 1756, disaster struck. In June of that year, Smart
was confined for the first time. He had entered a period of
his life that would see him shuttled through a series of
mental institutions, but that also would see Jubilate Agno
written, and the Song to David either written or completely
thought out.
The way in which Smart's madness affected him was
described by Mrs. Thrale. It "shewed itself only in a
preternatural excitement to prayer, which he held it as a
duty not to controul or repress— taking au pied de la lettre
our blessed Saviour's injunction to pray without ceasing.—
So that beginning by regular addresses to the Almighty, he
went on to call his friends from their dinners, or beds, or
places of recreation, whenever that impulse to prayer
pressed upon his mind."^ As Mrs. Thrale noted elsewhere,
this "indecorous conduct" finally "obliged his Friends to
place him in a Confinement whence many mad as he remained
Christopher Devlin, Poor Kit Smart (London, 1961),
p. 80.
2
excluded, only because their Delusion is not known."
This description makes Smart seem slightly ridiculous;
and it is only when we experience the emotion in the Song
to David and Jubilate Aano that we begin to realize how
intense and deeply felt his love for God was. We suddenly
see him as a tragic figure, rather than as a comic one— a
poor, mistreated believer, whose only crime was that he
loved the Lord too much. As we shall see when we get to
Jubilate Aano. Smart himself would have liked us to think
of him in this way.
The Song to David and Jubilate Agno were the products
of the mad period in Smart's life, and they are much better
than anything else he wrote. Browning rediscovered the Song
to David in the nineteenth century after it had vanished
for 200 years; and he established an attitude toward it that
was predominant until very recently, and that still remains
popular. The Song to David was Smart's one great poem,
written in a moment of madness, when he was "curled up and
3
caught" by heavenly inspiration. Cyril Falls reiterated
2Thralianar The Diarv of Hester Lvnch Thrale. ed. K. C.
Balderston (Oxford, 1951), II, 728.
3"With Christopher Smart," Parlevings with Certain
People (London, 1887), 1. 79.
the idea in the twentieth century. Smart had written "one
4
bright flower budded in madness."
Neither Browning nor Falls had to deal with Jubilate
5
Agno. which was not published until 1939. Its appearance
triggered a reevaluation. In 1950, there were two editions
g
of Smart's selected poems; and there was another edition
7
of Jubilate Agno in 1954. There also were two full length
studies of Smart, one in 1943 from the University of Mis-
g
souri, and more recently, Christopher Devlin's book.
In general, this scholarship objected to the Browning-
esque view of Smart. It maintained instead that the 1 1 Song
to David was not a thing foreign to Smart," but "was of a
piece with his other religious verse— finer, stronger,
4The Critic's Armoury (London, 1924), p. 109.
5William F. Stead, ed., Reioice in the Lamb (London,
1939).
6Robert Brittain, ed., Poems of Christopher Smart
(Princeton, 1950); Norman Callan, ed., The Collected Poems
of Christopher Smart. 2 vols. (London, 1950).
-Ivi. H. Bond, ed., Jubilate Agno (Cambridge, Mass.,
1954).
®Edward G. Ainsworth and Charles E. Noyes, Christopher
Smartr A Biographical and Critical Study. University of
Missouri Studies (Columbia, 1943).
9
sweeter, but of the same substance."
Nevertheless, the romantic conception of Smart is still
a popular one. For many people, he remains the mad poet of
the eighteenth century who wrote one great poem, and if the
legend is true, may even have written it by scratching it
into the wall of his Bedlam cell.^
This attitude has survived because the continuity in
Smart's poetry has never been adequately demonstrated.
Smart's life was an intriguing one, and most scholars who
have been interested in him have concentrated on it.
Ainsworth and Noyes's book is called a "Biographical and
Critical Study," but the emphasis is on biography, and
Devlin's book is even more biographically oriented. Conse
quently, with the exception of the Song to David and to a
lesser degree Jubilate Agno. the poems have been neglected.
Robert Brittain has noted that "in recent years" only two
critics have "bothered to comment" on the Seaton poems at
all, and the opinion of one, who found them "seldom
^Ainsworth and Noyes, p. 110.
10As recently as 1961, Geoffrey Grigson argued for the
truth of the story of Smart's having scratched the Song to
David into the wall of his cell. Christopher Smart. Writers
and Their Work Series, no. 136 (London, 1961), p. 23.
readable," is suggestive of the amount of time that either
devoted to them (p. 270).
The Song to David and Jubilate Aano are Smart's two
major poems, but they should not be studied alone. Though
we have come far enough to recognize that they are not
evidence of the estrangement of Smart's mind, they still
carry an implication of madness because of Smart's condition
when they were written, and because of the obvious differ
ence between them and his other poetry. Certainly, some
thing had changed when Smart wrote the Song to David and
Jubilate Agno, but we cannot recognize what it was until we
understand the roots from which they grew. Ainsworth and
Noyes suggested that they were "of a piece" with Smart's
other religious verse, without really examining his
religious verse. The five Seaton pieces represent all
Smart's religious poetry before the Song to David and Jubi
late Agno. and as we shall see, they contain the basic
elements that underlie the two great poems. There is a
high degree of consistency in the ideas in Smart's relig
ious poems, and the best way in which to understand the
Song to David and Jubilate Agno is by examining the Seaton
pieces along with them.
CHAPTER I
THE SEATON POEMS
The Seaton prize was established by Thomas Seaton of
Buckinghamshire, a former sizar of Clare-hall, who left his
estate to Cambridge in 1741. The income from the estate
was to be awarded annually for the best poem by a Master of
Arts "conducive to the honor of the Supreme Being," the
particular subject to be selected by officers of the uni
versity."^ The bequest was contested in the courts, and
Cambridge was unable to offer the prize until 1750. When
it was given, the premium amounted to thirty pounds.
Smart had left the university for London in 1749. He
was still able to compete for the Seaton prize because his
name remained on the Pembroke College rolls. The initial
award was his, and he managed the same feat in four of the
next five years— on every occasion that he submitted a poem.
^Ainsworth and Noyes, p. 81.
7
8
R. D. Havens has noted the importance of Smart's Seaton
pieces in the development of eighteenth century religious
2
poetry. Blank verse had been confined to "short pieces,
principally to paraphrases" of the Bible up to the middle of
3
the century, but the Seaton contest opened new vistas. It
"considerably augmented" the number and scope of religious
poems, and Smart "pointed out the path which the winners of
the Seatonian laurel should take" (p. 404). The extent of
his influence can be seen in the fact that all but seven of
the first forty-six Seaton winners copy Paradise Lost in
verse and style, just as Smart had (pp. 404-405).
In Smart's own career, the Seaton pieces represent the
intellectual rehearsals for the Song to David and Jubilate
Agno. Prior to 1750, he had written no religious poetry.
The contest gave him an opportunity to examine the ideas
that he was able to accept with complete assurance in his
two major poems.
The first Seaton poem, On the Eternity of the Supreme
2The Influence of Milton in English Poetry (Cambridge,
Mass., 1922), pp. 404-405.
3Havens, p . 404.
9
4
BeingT opens with an apostrophe to God:
HAIL, wond'rous Being, who in power supreme
Exists from everlasting, whose great name
Deep in the human heart, and every atom
The Air, the Earth, or azure Main contains,
In undecypher'd characters is wrote—
INCOMPREHENSIBLE
(11. 1-6)
God is essentially unknowable, but He exists everywhere in
the universe, both in the "human heart," and in "every atom"
of the natural world.
Smart questions whether a mortal poet, and particularly
himself, should dare to praise the "Eternal":
May then the youthful, uninspired Bard
Presume to hymn th' Eternal? may he soar
Where Seraph and where Cherubin on high
Resound th1 unceasing plaudits, and with them
In the grand chorus mix his feeble voice?
He may— if Thou, who from the witless babe
Ordainest honour, glory, strength, and praise,
Uplift th' unpinion'd Muse, and deign'st t' assist,
GREAT POET OF THE UNIVERSE, his song.
(11. 13-21)
The question-answer pattern is typical of Smart's poetry.
Even later when his ideas seem undisciplined and fantastic,
40n the Eternity of the Supreme Being. A poetical
essay (Cambridge, 1750). All quotations from the Seaton
poems are from Musae Seatonianae: A Complete Collection_of
the Cambridge Prize Poems (London, 1808), I.
10
there is usually a strong framework of logic behind them.
Here, and in the other early pieces, care must be taken not
to confuse this rhetorical logic with Smart's attitude,
which also is rational. The two exist alongside one an
other, but logical sequence is a separate structural ele
ment .
Also noteworthy in the passage are the "unceasing
plaudits" of the "grand chorus," and the picture of God as
the "GREAT POET OF THE UNIVERSE." Both images are part of
the continuing theme that links the Seaton pieces to the
Song to David and Jubilate Aano.
Having concluded that he may "Presume to hymn th'
Eternal," Smart goes back to pre-creation to begin his
examination of God's eternity:
Before this earthly Planet wound her course
Round Light's perennial fountain; before Light
Herself 'gan shine, and at th' inspiring word
Shot to existence in a blaze of day;
Before "the Morning Stars together sang,
And hail'd Thee architect of countless worlds";
Thou art— all-glorious, all-beneficent,
All Wisdom and Omnipotence thou art I
(11. 22-29)5
The series of "before" clauses demands that the verb be past
^Smart's quotation is from Job XXXVIII: 7.
tense, but Smart uses the present, "thou art." Ainsworth
and Noyes have pointed out Smart's familiarity with The
Consolation of Philosophy (p. 22), and part of Boethius's
explanation of free will illuminates Smart's reasoning.
Boethius maintained that God comprehends all eternity
/ "
g
simultaneously. At any moment, He exists as much in the
past or future as He does in the present; and therefore,
all time is present for Him.
"Thou art" has additional importance in relation to
Smart's religious ideas. In the opening apostrophe, he
stated that God exists everywhere, and went on to depict
the "grand chorus" of angels who continually praise Him.
"Thou art" extends the chorus to the whole universe. It is
the text which God's creation sings to hail Him "architect
of countless worlds." This complex of ideas— all creation
praising God, "thou art" as its song, and God the "archi
tect" or maker— is the cornerstone of Smart's religious
°Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, The Consolation
of Philosophy, ed. William Anderson (London, 1963), p. 116.
"God hath always an everlasting and present state, his
knowledge also surpassing all motion of time, remayneth in
the simplicity of his presence, and comprehending the in
finite spaces of that which is past and to come, confideth
al things in his simple knowledge, as though they were now
in doing."
12
beliefs. As Robert Brittain has noted, all his religious
poems are "rooted in his response to the great injunction,
'O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord: praise Him
and magnify Him forever 1'" (p. 59).
In the next section, Smart returns to the question-
answer pattern. Having considered pre-creation, he turns
to the creation, and questions whether or not God has con
fined Himself to "these worlds." Concluding that the Lord
"compos'd/ Systems innumerable," Smart wonders if even He
may not have paused to admire His greatest labor:
Perhaps enthron'd amidst a choicer few,
Of spirits inferior, he might greatly plan
The two prime pillars of the universe,
Creation and Redemption— and awhile
Pause with the grand presentiments of glory.
(11. 52-56)
The "two prime pillars of the universe" are linked to a
7
similar passage in the Song to David, but taken alone,
they still give us an insight into Smart's developing ideas.
g
Years later, when he published his Psalms. Smart pointed
7Stanzas XXX-XXXVIII.
8a Translation of the Psalms of David, attempted in
the JSpirit of Christianityr and adapted to the Divine Ser
vice (London, 1765).
13
out their peculiar character in his introductory notes.
"In this translation, all expressions, that seem contrary
to Christ, are omitted, and evangelical matter put in their
9
room." Smart objected to the severity and violence of the
Old Testament, and his attitude is similar here. The "two
prime pillars of the universe" are "Creation and Redemp
tion," the supreme acts of God and Christ. Smart's vision
of divine perfection requires not only power and might, but
Christian gentleness and forgiveness.
Smart rejects his questioning as pointless, however:
Perhaps— but all's conjecture here below,
All ignorance, and self-plum'd vanity—
0 Thou, whose ways to wonder at . ' s distrust,
Whom to describe's presumption, (all we can,
And all we may,) be glorified, be prais'd.
(11. 57-61)
God remains incomprehensible, and it is presumptuous to try
to understand any more than He elects to make known.
We have already noted that the Seaton poems afforded
Smart an opportunity to develop the assurance that underlies
his religious beliefs in the Song to David and in Jubilate
Aano. This growth in confidence can be related to the way
^Ainsworth and Noyes, p. 142.
14
in which he apprehended God. In the Seaton poems, his
understanding of the Almighty is almost entirely intellec
tual, but as time passed, it became increasingly emotional
and personal. The passage under consideration points out
the nature of his belief in 1750. Man and God remain
separated on earth, and throughout his worldly existence,
man can never hope to understand the workings of the Al
mighty. Later, in contrasting this attitude with the inti
mate relationship Smart felt he had with God at the time of
Jubilate Aano. we shall be able to understand just how great
the change in the nature of his belief was.
The next section begins the second major division of
the poem. In considering God's eternity, Smart first
questioned its beginning, and showed that God existed before
time, in pre-creation. He now turns to the problem of a
terminal limit, and to the day of judgment as the end of
everything that exists in time:
A day shall come, when all this Earth shall perish,
Nor leave behind ev'n Chaos; it shall come
When all the armies of the elements
Shall war against themselves, and mutual rage,
To make Perdition triumph; . . .
(11. 62-66)
He points out that nothing will survive:
15
Ye rocks, that mock the raving of the floods,
And proudly frown upon th' impatient deep,
Where is your grandeur now? Ye foaming waves,
That all along th' immense Atlantic roar,
In vain ye swell; will a few drops suffice
To quench the inextinguishable fire?
Ye mountains, on whose cloud-crown'd tops the cedars
Are lessen'd into shrubs, magnific piles,
That prop the painted chambers of the heavens,
And fix the earth continual? Athos, where?
Where, Teneriff, 's thy stateliness to-day?
What, AEtna, are thy flames to these?— No more
Than the poor glow-worm to the golden sun.
(11. 72-84)
This is the first appearance of natural phenomena in the
poem, and the passage typifies the way in which Smart treats
nature in the early Seaton pieces. He has not yet accepted
the idea that God exists in "every atom/ The Air, the Earth,
or azure Main contains" (11. 3-4) on any level deeper than
a superficial intellectual one. Consequently, he has no
real feeling that the natural world is a manifestation of
God, and none of the interest in it that later will come
when he really believes that the Almighty does exist in
nature. Instead, he depends on conventional phrases, like
"impatient deep," "foaming waves," and "magnific piles."
Elaborate attempts have been made to reproduce the
cosmos of Paradise Lost, and a similar effort would be
i
16
worthwhile with Smart.^ In this passage, the "painted
chambers of the heavens" should be noted because they are
part of the cosmic geography that Smart repeatedly uses to
describe the universe.
As he goes on to depict the other things that will
perish on the day of judgment, Smart also portrays the sun
and moon in terms that are part of this continuing pattern:
Nor thou, illustrious monarch of the day;
Nor thou, fair queen of night; nor you, ye stars,
Tho' million leagues and million still remote,
Shall yet survive that day; ye must submit,
Sharers, not bright spectators of the scene.
(11. 94-98)
Stead cites a passage in Jubilate Agno. in which the sun
and moon are described as male and female,^ as partial
evidence that "Smart and Blake may have visited the same
mountains and dipped their urns in the same springs" of
mysticism (p. 39). Smart, at least, had made the idea a
part of his poetic universe long before his first serious
religious experience.
•*-°John Milton, Complete Poems and Major Prose, ed.
Merritt Y. Hughes (New York, 1957), pp. 179-192.
i;lB2 317-318. All quotations from Jubilate Agno are
from Bond's edition.
17
Having shown that even the most enduring things will
not last eternally, Smart compares them to God:
But tho' the earth shall to the centre perish,
Nor leave behind ev'n Chaos? tho' the air
With all the elements must pass away,
Vain as an ideot's dream; tho' the huge rocks,
That brandish the tall cedars on their tops,
With humbler vales must to perdition yield;
Tho* the gilt sun, and silver-tressed moon
With all her bright retinue, must be lost;
Yet Thou, Great Father of the world, surviv'st
Eternal, as thou wert: Yet still survives
The soul of man immortal, perfect now,
And candidate for unexpiring joys.
(11. 99-110)
Smart carefully recapitulates the preceding section in a
series of parallel introductory clauses. The extent of his
cleverness and economy can be seen in the way in which he
telescopes two images from the earlier description. The
"rocks, that mock the raving of the floods" (1. 72) and the
"mountains, on whose cloud-crown1d tops the cedars/ Are
lessen'd into shrubs" (11. 78-79) have become "huge rocks,/
That brandish the tall cedars on their tops."
Smart has now demonstrated that there are no limits on
God's eternity, and also has affirmed that man's soul is
immortal. This leads him to envision the rising of the
dead:
18
"From east to west, from the Antarctic pole
"To regions Hyperborean, all ye sons,
"Ye sons of Adam, and ye heirs of Heaven—
"Arise, ye tenants of the silent grave,
"Awake incorruptible and arise."
(11. 116-120)
Smart asserts that only after the judgment, when man can
enjoy the "everlasting calm of Heaven" (1. 126), will he
be able to know God and properly praise Him:
'Tis then, nor sooner, that the deathless soul
Shall justly know its nature and its rise:
'Tis then the human tongue, new-tun'd, shall give
Praises more worthy the Eternal ear.
(11. 127-130)
Nevertheless, man should praise the Almighty now:
Yet what we can, we ought . . .
Tho' Gratitude were blest with all the powers
Her bursting heart could long for; tho' the swift,
The fiery-wing'd Imagination soar'd
Beyond Ambition's wish— yet all were vain
To speak Him as he is, who is INEFFABLE.
Yet still let Reason thro' the eye of Faith
View him with fearful love; let Truth pronounce,
And Adoration on her bended knee
With heaven-directed hands, confess His reign.
(1. 131)
(11. 136-144)
Though it is in vain to try to "speak Him as he is," praise
at least acknowledges "His reign."
19
The relationship between " f iery-wing' d Imagination" and
"Reason" reflects the attitude that dominates the whole
poem. Imagination is equated with the presumption that
would try to describe God, which Smart noted earlier (11.
57-61). Reason, based on faith and viewing the Almighty
with respectful awe, offers man all the insight into the
divine that he is allowed.
Other elements in the passage are interesting in rela
tion to the Sona to David and Jubilate Aano. The personi
fication, "Gratitude," will grow in importance until she
12
becomes the "angel" that Smart takes as his "wife."
Also noteworthy is "Adoration on her bended knee." Smart
is constantly concerned with the act of adoration, and the
word itself has a special significance for him, but the
"bended knee" is particularly interesting. The proper
manner in which to worship preoccupies Smart, and the
"bended knee" will be used repeatedly as a symbol for the
correct way of addressing the Almighty.
The poem concludes with a recollection of the "grand
chorus":
^Jubilate Agno. B2 324.
20
And let the Angelic, Archangelic band,
With all the Hosts of Heaven, Cherubic forms,
And forms Seraphic, with their silver trumps
And golden lyres attend:— "For Thou art holy,
"For Thou art One, th* Eternal, who alone
"Exerts all goodness, and transcends all praise."
(11. 145-150)
Man should join with the angels in praising the Lord, and
in acknowledging that He is the "One, th* Eternal."
This conclusion refocuses the poem. It is still a
logical examination of God's eternity, but a secondary
theme also has been delineated. In addition to the main
argument, Smart counsels man to adore the Lord. The poem
closes on a note of praise, and establishes a pattern that
will hold true throughout the Seaton pieces.
In the next Seaton piece, On the Immensity of the
13
Supreme Being. the idea of praise is expanded. The poem
opens with a burst of enthusiasm:
Once more I dare to rouse the sounding string,
THE POET OF MY GOD— Awake, my glory,
Awake, my lute and harp— myself shall wake,
Soon as the stately night-exploding bird
In lively lay sings welcome to the dawn.
130n the Immensity of the Supreme Being. A poetical
essay (Cambridge, 1751).
21
List yehow Nature with ten thousand tongues
Begins the grand thanksgiving, Hail, all hail,
Ye tenants of the forest and the field'.
My fellow-subjects of th' Eternal King,
I gladly join your Matins, and with you
Confess His presence, and report His praise.
0 Thou, who or the Lambkin, or the Dove,
When offer'd by the lowly, meek, and poor,
Prefer'st to Pride's whole hecatomb, accept
This mean Essay, nor from thy treasure-house
Of Glory' immense the Orphan's mite exclude.
(11. 1-16)
This is the first glimpse of the excitement and wonder of
Smart's major poems. The detachment that typifies the
Seaton pieces is replaced by an intimacy that he achieves
consistently only in the Song to David and Jubilate Agno.
At his best, Smart works on a small scale that is linked to
the special emphasis Christ receives in his vision of the
divine. Along with forgiveness and gentleness, Christ
embodies sympathy and love for every living thing, and it
is with this primarily emotional attitude that Smart ad
dresses the creation here. He is not just an observer, but
a fellow subject of "th1 Eternal King" along with the
"tenants of the forest and the field." His sympathies are
with the "lowly, meek, and poor." There is a new sense of
elation, particularly in the multeity of the universe. He
rejoices to hear^ "how Nature with ten thousand tongues/
22
Begins the grand thanksgiving." For a moment, Smart has
found his own voice. A feeling of sureness and insight not
present in the "youthful, uninspired Bard" (1. 13) of the
first Seaton piece prevails. He is "THE POET OF MY GOD,"
who no longer bothers to call for heavenly aid because he
understands that the Almighty will accept his "mean Essay,"
just as He does the "Matins" of Smart's "fellow-subjects."
This confidence and sense of belonging are exactly the
feelings that later make for the peculiar brilliance of the
Sona to David and Jubilate Agno.
Unfortunately, the intensity wanes, and the poem be
comes another reasoned disquisition on the wonder of God:
What tho' the Almighty's regal throne be rais'd
High o'er yon azure Heaven's exalted dome,
By mortal eye unkenn'd— where East, nor West,
Nor South, nor blustering North has breath to blow;
Albeit He there with Angels and with Saints
Hold conference, and to His radiant host
Ev'n face to face stand visibly confest;
Yet know, that nor in Presence or in Power
Shines He less perfect here; 'tis Man's dim eye
That makes th' obscurity. He is the same,
Alike in all his Universe the same.
(11. 17-27)
Though God resides beyond "azure Heaven's exalted dome"—
another term from Smart's cosmic geography— He can be found
throughout the universe, "in Presence or in Power" no "less
23
perfect here."
Smart goes on to prove the idea. He begins in the
heights, "where the Planets/ Weave their harmonious rounds":
Whether the Mind along the spangled sky
Measures her pathless walk, studious to view
Thy works of vaster fabric, where the Planets
Weave their harmonious rounds, their march directing
Still faithful, still inconstant to the Sun;
Or where the Comet thro' space infinite
(Tho1 whirling worlds oppose in globes of fire)
Darts, like a javelin, to his distant goal;
Or where in Heaven above, the Heaven of Heavens,
Burn brighter Suns, and goodlier Planets roll
With Satellites more glorious— Thou art there.
(11. 28-38)
The phrase, "Thou art there," is a variation of the text the
universe sings in hailing God in the first Seaton poem.
Both the magnificence of the stars and Smart himself confess
the presence of the Almighty; and thus both add their voices
to the grand chorus.
Smart turns to the ocean to demonstrate that God also
is there, triumphantly riding its "boisterous back" (1. 39).
Prom the surface, Smart descends to the depths:
O'. could I search the bosom of the sea,
Down the great depth descending; there thy works
Would also speak thy residence; and there
Would I thy servant, like the still profound,
Astonish'd into silence muse thy praise
Behold', beholdl the unplanted garden round
Of vegetable coral, sea-flowers gay,
And shrubs of amber from the pearl-pav'd bottom
24
Rise richly varied, where the finny race
In blithe security their gambols play;
While high above their heads Leviathan,
The terror and the glory of the main,
His pastime takes with transport, proud to
The Ocean's vast dominion all his own.
(11. 46-59)
14
Like the "impatient deep" and "magnific piles,"
"vegetable coral, sea-flowers gay,/ And shrubs of
are conventional Miltonic phrases that have none of the
wonder that Smart later brought to nature. Though he might
think that God's "works" spoke His "residence," Smart still
had not grasped the idea with the emotional faith that would
enable him to turn natural objects into beautiful images
that were proof of the divine presence.
From the ocean's depths, Smart passes to the "genial
bowels of the earth" (1. 60) to show that God also exists
there, in the rich deposits of gems. He moves from the
exotic mines of Africa and Asia to the Pyrenees:
Thence will I go
To undermine the treasure-fertile womb
Of the huge Pyrenean, to detect
The Agat and the deep-intrenched gem
Of kindred Jasper— Nature in them both
Delights to play the mimic on herself;
see
the
amber"
140n the Eternity of the Supreme Being. 11. 73, 79.
25
And in their veins she oft pourtrays the forms
Of leaning hills, of trees erect, and streams
Now stealing softly on, now thundering down
In desperate cascade, with flowers and beasts,
And all the living landskip of the vale:
In vain thy pencil, Claudio or Poussin,
Or thine, immortal Guido, would essay
Such skill to imitate— it is the hand
Of God himself— for God himself is there.
(11. 68-82)
Man can never hope to match God's artistry, which can be
seen even in the deepest regions of the earth.
Smart now has completed the first half of his journey
through the universe in search of evidence of God. It has
taken him from the highest heavens to the deepest bowels of
the earth; and simultaneously it has revealed the largest,
most evident wonders and the smallest, most hidden ones.
Smart has reached a point from which he can begin the ascent
that organizes the second half of the poem.
Smart rises with the "ascending springs," through "beds
of magnets, minerals, and spar," to the "mountain's summit"
(11. 83-85), where he can "indulge/ Th' ambition of the
comprehensive eye,/ That dares to call th' Horizon all her
own" (11. 85-86). From the mountain top, Smart looks out
across the earth:
Behold the forest, and the expansive verdure
Of yonder level lawn, whose smooth-shorn sod
26
No object interrupts, unless the oak
His lordly head uprears, and branching arms
Extends— Behold in regal solitude,
And pastoral magnificence, he stands
So simple', and so great! the under-wood
Of meaner rank an awful distance keep.
Yet Thou art there, yet God himself is there
Ev'n on the bush (tho1 not as when to Moses
He shone in burning Majesty reveal'd,)
Nathless conspicuous in the Linnet's throat
Is his unbounded goodness— Thee her Maker,
Thee her Preserver chaunts she in her song;
While all the emulative vocal tribe
The grateful lesson learn— no other voice
Is heard, no other sound— for, in attention
Buried, ev'n babbling Echo holds her peace.
(11. 88-105)
Just as in the first half of the poem, Smart moves from
great wonders to smaller ones. He focuses on the mighty
oak and the tiny linnet; and by demonstrating that God is
"Nathless conspicuous" in the one than in the other, he
suggests that the Almighty is present in all things in be
tween. Also present is the hymn of the grand chorus. The
whole natural hierarchy sings God's praises as the linnet's
song joins with Smart in affirming, "Thou art there."
Going on to find the same multitudinous evidence of
God in the "Chequer'd Variety" of enclosed fields (1. 109),
Smart recalls the earlier assertion that it is in vain "Such
skill to imitate" (1. 81);
27
What are yon towers,
The work of labouring man and clumsy art,
Seen with the ring-dove's nest?— On that tall beech
Her pensile house the feather'd artist builds—
The rocking winds molest her not; for see,
With such due poize the wond'rous fabric's hung,
That, like the compass in the bath, it keeps
True to itself, and stedfast ev'n in storms.
Thou ideot, that asserts there is no God,
View, and be dumb for ever—
Go bid Vitruvius or Palladio build
The bee his mansion, or the ant her cave—
Go call Correggio, or let Titian come
To paint the hawthorn's bloom, or teach the cherry
To blush with just vermillion— Hence away—
Hence, ye prophane'. for God himself is here.
(11. 111-126)
Though "feather'd artist" is another conventional Miltonic
phrase, the picture of the ring-dove, that with "due poize
the wond'rous fabric's hung," is an early intimation of the
way in which Smart will treat nature in the Song to David
and Jubilate Aano. It has the same delicate affection and
regard for the small and beautiful that Smart developed when
he came to believe that God really existed in the tiniest,
most insignificant creatures.
The poem concludes with a prayer that returns it to
heaven and completes the descent-ascent pattern:
And tho' nor shining sun, nor twinkling star
Bedeck'd the crimson curtains of the sky;
Tho' neither vegetable, beast, nor bird
Were extant on the surface of this ball,
Nor lurking gem beneath; tho' the great sea
28
Slept in profound stagnation, and the air
Had left no thunder to pronounce its Maker;
Yet man at home within himself, might find
The Deity immense, and in that frame
So fearfully, so wonderfully made,
See and adore His providence and power—
I see, and I adore— 0 God most bounteous I
0 infinite of Goodness and of Glory I
The knee, that Thou hast shap'd, shall bend
to Thee;
The tongue, which Thou hast tun'd, shall chaunt
Thy praise;
And, Thine own image, the immortal soul,
Shall consecrate herself to Thee for ever.
(11. 129-145)
In the first Seaton poem, Smart uses a series of introduc
tory clauses to recapitulate the destruction of the universe
on the day of judgment, and a similar technique is employed
here. He recounts all the natural wonders in which he found
evidence of God, and maintains that even without them, man
would still have certain proof of the divine presence.
The man-nature bifurcation, a continuing idea that
opened the earlier poem, God's "great name/ Deep in the
human heart, and every atom/ The Air, the Earth, or azure
Main contains,/ In undecypher'd characters is wrote" (11.
2-5), is repeated. Evidence of the Almighty exists in man—
in the "immortal soul," God's "own image"— as well as in
nature. Man can discover God by looking within himself,
just as he can by looking at the world around him. When he
29
does find the Lord within him, his soul will consecrate
itself to the divine, and he will join in the chorus of
adoration. Like the first Seaton piece, the poem concludes
by returning to the idea of praise.
The poem of 1752, On the Omniscience of the Supreme
15
Being. is an essay on instinct. The invocation can be
contrasted to the beginning of the second Seaton piece, in
which Smart was caught for a moment by the excitement that
dominates the Song to David and Jubilate Agno. and was able
to write as "THE POET OF MY GOD" (1. 2) without invoking
any sort of divine aid. Here, he begins with the intellec
tual detachment that is more typical of the Seaton pieces,
and he feels obliged to call upon a number of helpers:
Arise, divine Urania, with new strains
To hymn thy God I and thou, immortal Fame,
Arise, and blow thy everlasting trump'.
All glory to the Omniscient, and praise,
And power, and domination in the height 1
And thou, cherubic Gratitude, whose voice
To pious ears sounds silverly so sweet,
Come with thy precious incense, bring thy gifts,
And with thy choicest stores the altar crown.
Thou too, my heart, whom He, and He alone
Who all things knows, can know, with love replete,
Regenerate, and pure, pour all thyself
150n the Omniscience of the Supreme Being. A poe.ti.cal
essav (Cambridge, 1752).
30
A living sacrifice before His throne'.
And may th' eternal, high mysterious tree,
That in the center of the arched Heavens
Bears the rich fruit of Knowledge, with some branch
Stoop to my humble reach, and bless my toil!
(11. 1-17)
"Fame" and the "heart" are commonplace, but the others de
serve comment. The importance of the angel, "Gratitude,"
was noted before, and this marks a second appearance of a
motif that is part of the theme of praise. All things
joining in the grand chorus should be inspired by gratitude
16
toward God the giver, or creator— or the "POET" and
"architect" (1. 27), the maker of the world. Urania was
borrowed from the seventh book of Paradise Lost. She is
the "Heav'nly born" sister of "Wisdom," who has conversed
with "Eternal Wisdom" (11. 9-10). The tree of knowledge is
another reminder of Smart's intellectual attitude. Just as
in the first Seaton poem, he grounds his faith on reason
and knowledge. As the poem itself will show, they offer
the greatest insight into the divine.
After the invocation, Smart considers the development
of his own mind:
16On the Eternity of the Supreme Being. 1. 21.
31
When in my mother's womb conceal'd I lay
A senseless embryo, then my soul Thou knew'st,
Knew'st all her future workings, every thought,
And every faint idea yet unform'd,
When up the imperceptible ascent
Of growing years, led by Thy hand, I rose,
Perception's gradual light, that ever dawns
Insensibly to day, Thou didst vouchsafe,
And taught me by that reason Thou inspir'dst,
That what of knowledge in my mind was low,
Imperfect, incorrect— in Thee is wond'rous,
Uncircumscrib'd, unsearchably profound,
And estimable solely by itself.
(11. 18-30)
God knows all our thoughts, even before we are able to
reason; and reason, when it is acquired, teaches us that
the Almighty's knowledge will always remain that much great
er than ours.
This leads Smart to consider the way in which the Lord
governs the beasts:
What is that secret power, that guides the brutes,
Which Ignorance calls instinct? 'Tis from Thee,
It is the operation of Thine hands
Immediate, instantaneous; 'tis Thy wisdom,
That glorious shines transparent thro' Thy works.
(11. 31-35)
Men may conceptualize "instinct," but all that they really
have done is uncover one of the ways in which the Lord
works, and given it a mistaken name.
Smart demonstrates how the Almighty preserves the
32
beasts through instinct. He offers a number of examples
that are contrasted with the life of man. The first one is
typical:
Who taught the Pye, or who forewarn'd the Jay
To shun the deadly night shade? Tho' the cherry
Boasts not a glossier hue, nor does the plum
Lure with more seeming sweets the amorous eye,
Yet will not the sagacious birds, decoy'd
By fair appearance, touch the noxious fruit.
They know to taste is fatal, whence alarm'd
Swift on the winnowing winds they work their way.
Go to, proud reas'ner, philosophic Man,
Hast thou such prudence, thou such knowledge?— No.
Full many a race has fell into the snare
Of meretricious looks, of pleasing surface;
And oft in desert isles the famish'd pilgrim
By forms of fruit, and luscious taste beguil'd,
Like his forefather Adam, eats and dies.
For why? his wisdom on the leaden feet
Of slow Experience, dully tedious, creeps,
And comes, like vengeance, after long delay.
(11. 36-53)
Smart's intellectualism has been noted, but this passage
points out the basic reservation in it. Though it may be
man's best tool, human wisdom is still remarkably limited.
Even the beasts surpass it in some ways; and it can never
come close enough to God to render Him comprehensible.
Smart next contrasts the "venerable Sage" who devotes
his life to investigating "the powers/ Of plants medicinal,
the earth, the air,/ And the dark regions of the fossil
world" with the dog that "from th' emetic herbage" works
33
his own cure, and the "feather'd matron" who instinctively
hides her offspring from the "rapacious adversary," the
hawk (11. 54-79). He then moves on to a third contrast,
the nightingale and Newton:
When Philomela, ere the cold domain
Of crippled Winter 'gins t' advance, prepares
Her annual flight, and in some poplar shade
Takes her melodious leave, who then 's her pilot?
Who points her passage thro' the pathless void
To realms from us remote, to us unknown?
Her science is the science of her God.
Not the magnetic index to the North
E'er ascertains her course, nor buoy, nor beacon:
She, Heaven-taught voyager, that sails in air,
Courts nor coy West nor East, but instant knows
What Newton or not sought, or sought in vain.
Illustrious name! irrefragable proof
Of man's vast genius, and the soaring souII
Yet what wert thou to Him, who knew His works
Before creation form'd them, long before
He measur'd in the hollow of His hand
Th' exulting Ocean, and the highest Heavens
He comprehended with a span, and weigh'd
The mighty mountains in His golden scales;
Who shone supreme, who was Himself the light,
Ere yet Refraction learn'd her skill to paint,
And bend athwart the clouds her beauteous bow.
(11. 80-102)
Along with repeating the immediate argument, the passage
also shows Smart's general attitude toward science. Newton
is revered as the greatest manifestation of "man's vast
genius" because he has discovered many of the wonders of
the universe, but the Almighty is infinitely greater, having
34
created the wonders that Newton has only uncovered.
From the wisest of modern men, Smart turns to the
wisest ancient:
When Knowledge at her father's dread command
Resign'd to Israel's king her golden key,
01 to have join'd the frequent auditors
In wonder and delight, that whilom heard
Great Solomon descanting on the brutes,
01 how sublimely glorious to apply
To God's own honour, and good will to man,
That wisdom he alone of men possess'd
In plenitude so rich, and scope so rare.
(11. 103-111)
Paraphrasing the Bible, Smart asserts that the Lord gave
17
Solomon wisdom so that his knowledge is God's own.
Among Solomon's proverbs, Smart finds another demon-
18
stration of the wonders of instinct:
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider
her ways and be wise:
Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
Provideth her meat in the summer, and
gathereth her food in harvest.
From the simple biblical outline, Smart constructs an
elaborate picture of female industry:
l^II chronicles I: 12.
18proverbs VI: 6-9.
35
How did he rouse the pamper'd silken sons
Of bloated Ease, by placing to their view
The sage industrious Ant, the wisest insect,
And best oeconomist of all the field I
Tho' she presumes not by the solar orb
To measure times and seasons, nor consults
Chaldean calculations, for a guide;
Yet conscious that December's on the march,
Pointing with icy hand to Want and Woe,
She waits his dire approach, and undismay'd
Receives him as a welcome guest, prepar'd
Against the churlish Winter's fiercest blow.
For when, as yet the favourable Sun
Gives to the genial earth th' enlivening ray,
Not the poor suffering slave, that hourly toils
To rive the groaning earth for ill-sought gold,
Endures such trouble, such fatigue, as she;
While all her subterraneous avenues,
And storm-proof cells, with management most meet
And unexampled housewifery she forms:
Then to the field she hies, and on her back,
Burden immense', she bears the cumbrous corn.
Then many a weary step, and many a strain,
And many a grievous groan subdued, at length
Up the huge hill she hardly heaves it home:
Nor rests she here her providence, but nips
With subtle tooth the grain, lest from her garner
In mischievous fertility it steal,
And back to day-light vegetate its way.
Go to the Ant, thou sluggard, learn to live,
And by her wary ways reform thine own.
(11. 112-142)
The description of the ant enlarges Smart's intention.
Previously, he had cited examples to show that the Almighty
was responsible for instinct in the beasts, but now he finds
an additional value in them. Following Solomon's admoni
tion, "consider her ways and be wise," he emphasizes their
36
instructive worth. The instinctual action of the ant not
only demonstrates the Lord's presence, but it teaches man
"unexampled housewi fery."
Smart offers a second case of more "glaring evidence"
(1. 144) that will show man how to reform his ways:
behold,
Where yon pellucid populous hive presents
A yet uncopied model to the world!
There Machiavel in the reflecting glass
May read himself a fool. The Chemist there
May with astonishment invidious view
His toils out-done by each plebeian Bee,
Who, at the royal mandate, on the wing
From various herbs, and from discordant flowers,
A perfect harmony of sweets compounds.
(11. 144-153)
The "populous hive" of the bee is a "yet uncopied model to
the world." These two images, the bee and the ant, are
examples of the continuity in Smart's work, in his images
as well as his ideas. From the second Seaton poem, they
recall the statement, "Go bid Vitruvius or Palladio build/
The bee his mansion, or the ant her cave" (11. 121-122).
Smart next considers the implications of man's learning
from the beasts:
Avaunt, Conceit! Ambition, take thy flight
Back to the Prince of Vanity and Air!
01 'tis a thought of energy most piercing;
Form'd to make Pride grow humble; form'd to force
Its weight on the reluctant Mind, and give her
37
A true but irksome image of herself.
Woeful vicissitude 1 when Man, fall'n Man,
Who first from Heaven, from gracious God himself
Learn'd knowledge of the Brutes, must know, by Brutes
Instructed and reproach'd, the scale of being;
By slow degrees from lowly steps ascend,
And trace Omniscience upwards to its spring'.
(11. 154-165)
The passage recalls Smart's reservation about human know
ledge and the warnings against presumption. That man can be
"Instructed and reproach'd" by the brutes should give him a
"true but irksome image" of his mind.
Nevertheless, Smart maintains that man should not cur
tail the fervor with which he praises the Almighty. Though
the world has lost much of the magnificence that was present
before Adam's fall, the Almighty still provides a multitude
of joys:
Yet murmur not, but praise— for tho' we stand
Of many a Godlike privilege amerc'd
By Adam's dire transgression; tho' no more
Is Paradise our home, but o'er the portal
Hang in terrific pomp the burning blade;
Still with ten thousand beauties blooms the Earth,
With pleasures populous, and with riches crown'd.
Still is there scope for wonder and for love
Ev'n to their last exertion— showers of blessings
Far more than human virtue can deserve,
Or hope expect, or gratitude return.
(11. 166-176)
Just as in the two earlier poems, Smart moves from a
38
consideration of a particular attribute of the Almighty to
the idea of praise.
Concluding, Smart admonishes all men to join the chorus
that praises the Lord:
Then, 0 ye people, 0 ye Sons of Men,
Whatever be the colour of your lives,
Whatever portion of itself His wisdom
Shall deign t' allow, still patiently abide,
And praise Him more and more; nor cease to chaunt
"ALL GLORY TO TH' OMNISCIENT, AND PRAISE,
"AND POWER, AND DOMINATION IN THE HEIGHT'.
"And thou, cherubic Gratitude, whose voice
"To pious ears sounds silverly so sweet,
"Come with thy precious incense, bring thy gifts,
"And with thy choicest stores the altar crown."
(11. 177-187)
The invocation of the angel, "Gratitude," is repeated as
Smart returns to the idea of praise that rounds out all the
Seaton pieces.
The fourth Seaton poem, On the Power of the Supreme
19
Being. introduces David into Smart's poetry. His interest
in the psalmist goes back at least to 1746, when in the
preface to the "Ode for Music," he noted that a friend had
suggested "David's playing to King Saul" as a subject, but
190n the Power of the Supreme Being. A poetical essav
(Cambridge, 1754).
39
that he had been deterred from it because the "chusing too
high subjects had been the ruin of many a tolerable
20
genius." In 1753, Smart still is not ready to make David
his subject as he would in the Song to David, but he does
open his Seaton piece with a reference to the "anointed
poet," and a paraphrase of the seventh verse of Psalm CXIV:
"Tremble, thou Earth'." th' anointed poet said,
"At God's bright presence, tremble, all ye mountains
"And all ye hillocks on the surface bound'."
(11. 1-3)
Smart goes on to elaborate the passage from the psalm:
Then once again, ye glorious thunders, roll'.
The Muse with transport hears ye; once again
Convulse the solid continent 1 and shake,
Grand music of Omnipotence, the isles 1
'Tis Thy terrific voice, thou God of Power,
'Tis Thy terrific voice; all Nature hears it
Awaken'd and alarm'd; she feels its force;
In every spring she feels it, every wheel,
And every movement of her vast machine.
(11. 4-12)
The thunder, God's "terrific voice," arouses nature's
"every wheel,/ And every movement" to an awareness of His
power. Nature's "vast machine" is related to the image of
^Ainsworth and Noyes, pp. 22-23.
40
God the "architect" (1. 27) from the first Seaton poem.
The Lord, as designer and masterbuilder, has framed a
complex structure, or "machine"— the universe.
Smart continues by comparing the thunder with the
sounds of God that the angels hear:
But what is this, celestial tho' the note,
And proclamation of the reign supreme,
Compar'd with such as, for a mortal ear
Too great, amaze the incorporeal worlds?
Should Ocean to his congregated waves
Call in each river, cataract, and lake,
And with the wat'ry world down an huge rock
Fall headlong in one horrible cascade,
'Twere but the echo of the parting breeze
When Zephyr faints upon the lily's breast,
'Twere but the ceasing of some instrument
When the last lingering undulation
Dies on the doubting ear, if nam'd with sounds
So mighty 1 so stupendous' . so divine I
(11. 16-29)
Smart once again points out God's incomprehensibility. The
sounds with which the Almighty announces his presence to
"the incorporeal worlds" is "for a mortal ear/ Too great."
Attempting to describe it, Smart can only say that it is
infinitely greater than the most tremendous sound he can
imagine, all the water in the world cascading in a single
waterfall.
In the second Seaton piece, Smart used three structural
patterns: a descent-ascent movement that enabled him to
41
pursue God's immensity throughout the universe;-a movement
from great examples of God's presence to small ones; and an
examination of evidence within man as well as within nature.
These same principles are used in this poem. Having found
the Almighty's power manifest in the "aerial vault," Smart
descends to the "bowels of the earth";
But not alone in the aerial vault
Does He the dread theocracy maintain;
For oft, enrag'd with His intestine thunders,
He harrows up the bowels of the earth,
And shocks the central magnet— Cities then
Totter on their foundations, stately columns,
Magnific walls, and heaven-assaulting spires.
(11. 30-36)
Earthquakes, as well as thunder, are evidence of the Lord's
power. Smart recognizes that the whole universe is God's,
and he makes no effort to avoid the destructive elements in
it. The earthquakes are rationalized as divine warnings:
Twice have we felt,
Within Augusta's walls twice have we felt
Thy threaten'd indignation; but even Thou,
Incens'd Omnipotent, art gracious ever;
Thy goodness infinite but mildly warn'd us
With mercy-blended wrath: 0 spare us still,
Nor send more dire conviction 1 We confess
That Thou art He, th' Almighty: we believe.
For at Thy righteous power whole systems quake,
For at Thy nod tremble ten thousand worlds.
(11. 51-60)
42
Particularly interesting is the reference to actual earth
quakes in England. The tremors of 1750 had severely shocked
London, and by interpreting them as warnings, Smart followed
21
the example of a number of his contemporaries. The Lord's
"mercy-blended wrath" had shown itself, and men were forced
to confess His power with a variation of the hymn of the
grand chorus, "Thou art He."
Having reached the bottom of his descent, Smart moves
to the surface of the earth to round out the descent-ascent
pattern:
Hark! on the winged whirlwind's rapid rage,
Which is and is not in a moment— hark'.
On th' hurricane's tempestuous sweep He rides
Invincible, and oaks and pines and cedars
And forests are no more. For, conflict dreadful1
The West encounters East, and Notus meets
In his career the Hyperborean blast.
The lordly lions shuddering seek their dens,
And fly like the timorous deer; the king of birds,
Who dar'd the solar ray, is weak of wing,
And faints and falls and dies;— while He supreme
Stands stedfast in the center of the storm.
(11. 61-72)
Just as in the heavens and in the depths, the violence that
2J-cf. Benjamin Stillingfleet, "Some thoughts occasioned
by the late earthquakes, 1750," Literary Life and Selected
Works (London, 1811), II, 39-44; and Thomas Gibbons, "On the
earthquake," Juvenalia (London, 1750), pp. 238-241.
43
nature unleashes on the earth's surface provides another
reminder of the Lord's power.
Smart goes on to the second pattern that organizes the
poem. He already has explored the descent-ascent framework
to consider the grandest examples of the power of the Al
mighty, and now he turns to the smaller ones:
Wherefore, ye objects terrible and great,
Ye thunders, earthquakes, and ye fire-fraught wombs
Of fell volcanos, whirlwinds, hurricanes,
And boiling billows, hailI in chorus join
To celebrate and magnify your Maker,
Who yet in works of a minuter mould
Is not less manifest, is not less mighty.
(11. 73-79)
In the first two Seaton pieces, Smart used recapitulation in
passing from one section to another, and the same device is
employed here. He recounts the great manifestations of the
Lord's power, and moves on by admonishing them to join in
the grand chorus that celebrates their "Maker."
God's "works of a minuter mould" are no "less mighty"
than His "objects terrible and great," however, so Smart
turns to an examination of the smaller wonders in the uni
verse:
Survey the magnet's sympathetic love,
That wooes the yielding needle; contemplate
Th' attractive amber's power, invisible
Ev'n to the mental eye; or when the blow
44
Sent from th' electric sphere assaults thy frame,
Shew me the hand that dealt it'.— Baffled here
By His Omnipotence, Philosophy
Slowly her thoughts inadequate revolves,
And stands, with all His circling wonders round her,
Like heavy Saturn in th' etherial space
Begirt with an inexplicable ring.
(11. 80-90)
Smart again resolves the science-religion conflict. Science
may point out the existence of magnetism and electricity,
but this does not amount to understanding. Only the Al
mighty knows how such forces originate, and where they come
from. Confronted by such questions, "Philosophy" can only
admit its inadequacy and stand "Baffled" before the "circ
ling wonders" of God.
Smart next considers the way in which the Almighty is
manifest in man:
If such the operations of His power,
Which at all seasons and in every place
(Rul'd by establish'd laws and current nature)
Arrest th' attention; Who! 0 who shall tell
His acts miraculous? when His own decrees
Repeals He, or suspends; when by the hand
Of Moses or of Joshua, or the mouths
Of his prophetic seers, such deeds He wrought,
Before th' astonish'd Sun's all seeing eye,
That Faith was scarce a virtue . . .
(11. 91-100)
The passage represents the shift to the third pattern in the
45
poem. Man offers clear evidence of God's presence, just as
nature does. When that evidence is examined, it is so
convincing that it demands belief. Faith is no longer a
virtue, but simply the acknowledgment of an obvious truth.
Smart offers similar examples of God in man, including
a reference to "How David triumph'd" (1. 107), and then he
turns to the manifestation of the Almighty that "crowns" His
"glory":
— But, 0 supreme, unutterable mercy I
0 love unequalI'd, mystery immense,
Which angels long t' unfold'. 'tis man's redemption
That crowns Thy glory, and Thy power confirms,
Confirms the great, th' uncontroverted claim.
When from the Virgin's unpolluted womb
Shone forth the Sun of Righteousness reveal'd,
And on benighted reason pour'd the day;
"Let there be peace1" (he said) and all was calm
Amongst the warring world— calm as the sea
When, "O be still, ye boisterous Winds!" he cried,
And not a breath was blown, nor murmur heard.
His was a life of miracles and might,
And charity and love, 'ere yet he taste
The bitter draught of death, 'ere yet he rise
Victorious o'er the universal foe,
And Death and Sin and Hell in triumph lead.
His by the right of conquest is mankind,
And in sweet servitude and golden bonds
Were ty'd to him for ever . . .
(11. 108-127)
The passage recalls Smart's vision of divine perfection from
the first Seaton piece. Redemption, or Christ's part in the
divine, was one of the "two prime pillars of the universe"
46
(1. 54). Here, as the crown to God's "glory," the impor
tance of redemption is reaffirmed. Similarly, we recall
Smart's repeated assertions that man's soul is immortal.
Redemption by Christ has assured its immortality; and
therefore, the soul is proof within man of the Lord's power,
particularly of the sympathy and the love that Christ rep
resents .
In each of the earlier Seaton pieces, Smart concluded
with a hymn of praise. Here, he closes by praising Christ:
0 how easy
Is his ungalling yoke, and all his burdens
'Tis ecstacy to bear 1 Him, blessed Shepherd,
His flocks shall follow thro' the maze of life
And shades that tend to Day-spring from on high;
And as the radiant roses after fading,
In fuller foliage and more fragrant breath
Revive in smiling Spring, so shall it fare
With those that love him— for sweet is their savour,
And all Eternity shall be their spring.
Then shall the gates and everlasting doors,
At which the KING OF GLORY enters in,
Be to the Saints unbarr'd: and there, where pleasure
Boasts an undying bloom, where dubious hope
Is certainty, and grief-attended love
Is freed from passion— there we'll celebrate,
With worthier numbers, Him, who is, and was,
And in immortal prowess King of Kings,
Shall be the Monarch of all worlds for ever.
(11. 127-145)
Christ's "ungalling yoke" is "ecstacy to bear." Following
Him, man will be led to heaven, where he can praise the
47
Almighty with "worthier numbers" that he can manage on
earth. Once again, praise and the grand chorus come to
gether and recall the idea of praise with which the other
Seaton pieces conclude.
After winning the Seaton prize for four successive
years, Smart did not submit an entry in 1754. The year was
one in which he wrote little, and he may have been prevented
22
from competing by a serious illness. In 1756, in the
introduction to the "Hymn to the Supreme Being, On recovery
from a dangerous fit of illness," Smart spoke of the siege
from which he had just recovered as the "third time" that
23
he had been rescued "from the grave." Quite possibly, one
of the two earlier illnesses had occurred in 1754.
In 1755, Smart again wrote for the Seaton laurel, but
his winning poem was different from the four earlier ones.
The change in attitude that separates the other Seaton
pieces from the Sona to David and Jubilate Agno had started.
In the early Seaton pieces, Smart's attitude is intellectual
and detached? but by 1755, he had begun to apprehend God
with the emotional conviction that was to give the major
^Devlin, p. 70.
^Ainsworth and Noyes, pp. 86-87.
48
poems their special beauty.
It is difficult to say what accounts for this change,
but the "Hymn to the Supreme Being, On recovery from a
dangerous fit of illness" suggests one possible explanation.
Even after the last Seaton poem, Smart was still embroiled
in this process of spiritual change, and the "Hymn" docu
ments one of the later steps in it. From his illness of
1756, Smart arose with an increased sense of dedication to
the Almighty:
My feeble feet refus'd my body's weight,
Nor wou'd my eyes admit the glorious light,
My nerves convuls'd shook fearful of their fate,
My mind lay open to the powers of night,
He pitying did a second birth bestow
A birth of joy— not like the first of tears and woe.
Ye strengthen'd feet, forth to his altar move;
Quicken, ye new-strung nerves, th' enraptur'd lyre;
Ye heav'n-directed eyes, o'erflow with love;
Glow, glow, my soul, with pure seraphic fire;
Deeds, thoughts, and words no more his mandates break,
But to his endless glory work, conceive, and speak.
(11. 67-78)
God had granted Smart a "second birth," that brought a new
awareness of the divine. If Smart's earlier illness was as
serious as this one, as the introduction to the "Hymn to
the Supreme Being" suggests, he might well have experienced
the first stirrings of the feelings that he aired in the
49
hymn in 1754. "When reason left," "And sense was lost in
24
terror or in trance" Smart may have undergone the initial
changes that led to the peculiar understanding of the divine
that enabled him to write the Song to David and Jubilate
Agno.
The final Seaton poem, On the Goodness of the Supreme
25
Being. opens with a reference to David:
ORPHEUS, for so the Gentiles call'd thy name,
Israel's sweet Psalmist, who alone could'st wake
Th' inanimate to motion; who alone
The joyful hillocks, the applauding rocks,
And floods, with musical persuasion drew;
Thou who to hail and snow gav'st voice and sound,
And mad'st the mute melodious I— greater yet
Was thy divinest skill, and rul'd o'er more
Than art and nature; for thy tuneful touch
Drove trembling Satan from the heart of Saul,
And quell'd the Evil Angel:— in this breast
Some portion of thy genuine spirit breathe,
And lift me from myself, each thought impure
Banish; each low idea raise, refine,
Enlarge, and sanctify;— so shall the Muse
Above the stars aspire, and aim to praise
Her God on earth, as He is prais'd in heaven.
(11. .1-17)
The first line originally was footnoted, "See this
Hymn to the Supreme Being, On recovery from a dan
gerous fit of illness," 11. 21-22.
25pn the Goodness of the Supreme Being. A poetical
essav (Cambridge, 1756).
50
conjecture strongly supported by Delany, in his Life of
26
David." This was probably the book on David that Smart
had borrowed from the Pembroke library while he still was
27
at Cambridge. In 1746, Smart had felt that the psalmist
was "too high" a subject for his "genius" (pp. 22-23). Even
in the fourth Seaton poem, he had alluded to the "anointed
poet" (1. 1) only to quote his description of God harrowing
the earth. Now, there is a new sense of identification.
Smart recognizes David as the archetypal singer of God's
praises, and he calls on him for aid because this is the
role that Smart himself wants to assume in modern times.
The association of David and Orpheus appeals to Smart be
cause it extends David's validity as the archetypal singer.
Not only were his powers recognized in the Hebraic tradi
tion, but they were so supremely evident that they also
found notice among the "Gentiles." Part of the attitude
that made possible Smart's great poems was the vision of
himself as the Lord's special priest, destined to reawaken
men to their proper duties of praise; and the idea drew its
26Patrick Delany, An Historical Account of the Life
and Reign of Davidf King of Israel (Dublin, 1740).
^Ainsworth and Noyes, p. 21.
51
strength from the example of David, with whom Smart now
feels confident enough to identify.
Smart questions where to begin, and where to end this
"purest sacrifice of song/ And just thanksgiving" (11. 22-
23). The "thought-kindling" sun inspires him;
The thought-kindling light,
Thy prime production, darts upon my mind
Its vivifying beams, my heart illumines,
And fills my soul with gratitude and Thee.
Hail to the cheerful rays of ruddy morn,
That paint the streaky East, and blithsome rouse
The birds, the cattle, and mankind from rest!
Hail to the freshness of the early breeze,
And Iris dancing on the new-fall'n dewl
Without the aid of yonder golden globe
Lost were the garnet's lustre, lost the lily,
The tulip and auricula's spotted pride;
Lost were the peacock's plumage, to the sight
So pleasing in its pomp and glossy glow.
0 thrice-illustrious' . were it not for thee
Those pansies, that reclining from the bank,
View thro' th' immaculate, pellucid stream,
Their portraiture in the inverted heaven,
Might as well change their triple boast, the white,
The purple, and the gold, that far outvie
The Eastern monarch's garb, ev'n with the dock,
Ev'n with the baleful hemlock's irksome green.
(11. 23-44)
This is the first extended passage in which Smart is able to
present nature with the delicacy and beauty of the Song to
David and Jubilate Aano. He finally has begun to believe
that God really does reside throughout His creation. The
number of conventional phrases is greatly reduced, and Smart
52
aims to capture the excitement and fascination that nature
held now that he realized that God actually is there. The
"spotted pride" of the lily, the tulip, and the auricula
suggest not only the beauty of their blossoms, but also that
they represent a manifestation of the Almighty, of which
they are intensely proud. The "immaculate, pellucid stream"
describes the water as clear and limpid, but it also recog
nizes that it is a reflection of God's moral and spiritual
purity. The pansies' "triple boast" of color, all of which
have deep religious significance, recalls Smart's statement
that the "subjects of th' Eternal King" "Confess His pres-
28
ence, and report His praise." The "triple boast" con
fesses the Lord's presence just as the "spotted pride" does,
but it also is a "boast" in the sense that it extols the
Lord and reports His praise.
Smart had maintained that God existed in "every atom/
The Air, the Earth, or azure Main contains" in the first
Seaton poem (11. 3-4). Still, when he wrote about nature,
he only envisioned it in conventional Miltonic terms like
"foaming waves" (1. 74) and "verdant vallies" (1. 85). The
idea that God existed in nature was something that he
OQ
On the Immensity of the Supreme Being. 11. 9-11.
53
accepted intellectually, but did not really believe on the
deep emotional level that would have made him unable to
think of nature without seeing it as a manifestation of God.
By 1755, Smart no longer held the idea merely intellectu
ally. Emotionally, he truly believed that God was present
in every natural object; and nature became wonderful for
him. He constantly could find the divine presence in it;
and thus, it no longer was a subject that could be described
with conventional phrases. Instead, Smart had to try to
depict the peculiar beauty in each thing, which showed the
presence of the Almighty.
Smart turns from inanimate nature to the birds to show
that they also are inspired by the sun:
Without thy aid, without thy gladsome beams
The tribes of woodland warblers would remain
Mute on the bending branches, nor recite
The praise of Him, who, 'ere he form'd their lord,
Their voices tun'd to transport, wing'd their flight,
And bade them call for nurture, and receive:
And lol they call; the blackbird and the thrush,
The woodlark, and the redbreast jointly call;
He hears and feeds their feather'd families,
He feeds His sweet musicians,— nor neglects
Th' invoking ravens in the greenwood wide:
And tho' their throats coarse rattling hurt the ear,
They mean it all for music, thanks and praise
They mean . . .
(11. 45-58)
Though Smart by now deeply believed that the Almighty was
54
present in nature, he still made no attempt to deny the
existence of ugliness. Here, he admits that the raven's
"coarse rattling" hurts the ear; and in the preceding de
scription of the flowers, he admitted that the "baleful
hemlock's" green was "irksome" (1. 44). But he also retains
a deep sympathy for these things because he recognizes that
these are the ways in which they confess God's presence, and
report His praise. Everything in the universe may not be
beautiful, but it all attests to the existence of God, and
resounds with his glory.
The passage also points out that in spite of the new
vision that was emerging, Smart still had not freed himself
entirely from the artificial Miltonic diction of the other
Seaton poems. Though the general feeling is consistent with
his new outlook, epithets like "woodland warblers" and
"feather'd families" remain as part of the old tradition
that he was leaving behind.
Smart turns to man to show that he praises the Al
mighty, just as the different forms of nature do:
for hark the organs blow
Their swelling notes round the cathedral's dome,
And grace th' harmonious choir, celestial feast
To pious ears, and med'cine of the mind;
The thrilling trebles and the manly base
Join in accordance meet, and with one voice
55
All to the sacred subject suit their song.
While in each breast sweet Melancholy reigns
Angelically pensive, till the joy
Improves and purifies; the solemn scene
The Sun thro' storied panes surveys with awe,
And bashfully with-holds each bolder beam.
(11. 59-70)
The importance of music has not been pointed out. David,
the archetypal praiser, sings his psalms, and the grand
chorus is a real chorus in the musical sense. The angels
29
"with their silver trumps/ And golden lyres attend." The
30
planets go in "harmonious rounds." The "tenants of the
forest and the field" join in their daily "Matins," or
morning song (11. 8-10). Song, or music, is the universal
form that all things use to praise the Almighty.
Within the cathedral, the "cherub Gratitude" joins
with man:
Here, as her home, from morn to eve frequents
The cherub Gratitude; behold her eyes I
With love and gladness weepingly they shed
Ecstatic smiles; the incense, that her hands
Uprear, is sweeter than the breath of May
Caught from the nectarine's blossom, and her voice
Is more than voice can tell; to Him she sings,
To Him who feeds, who clothes, and who adorns,
290n the Eternity of the Supreme Being. 11. 147-148.
300n the Immensity of theSuoreme Being. 1. 31.
56
Who made, and who preserves, whatever dwells
In air, in stedfast earth, or fickle sea.
(11. 71-80)
The recurring figure, Gratitude, leads man in praising the
Lord as creator and preserver of everything in the world.
Smart continues with his own praise of the Almighty,
and admonishes the "quarters of the world" to join with him:
rise, attend,
Attest, and praise, ye quarters of the worldl
Bow down, ye elephants, submissive bow
To Him, who made the mite'. Tho', Asia's pride 1
Ye carry armies on your tower-crown'd backs,
And grace the turban'd tyrants, bow to Him
Who is as great, as perfect, and as good
In His less striking wonders, till at length
The eye's at fault, and seeks th' assisting glass.
(11. 85-93)
The passages repeat ideas that were used earlier. The move
ment from great to small in examining God's wonders was
noted in both the second and fourth Seaton pieces, and the
eye "at fault" that "seeks th' assisting glass" is another
form of the "comprehensive eye" image (11. 86-87) from the
second Seaton poem.
Smart directs "Araby," "sable Africa," and "fair India"
to join in praising God. From Araby, he asks that its
"tributary incense" of "fragrant cassia, frankincense, and
57
myrrh" be placed at the "altar's foot" (11. 94-97). He
calls on Africa to revert its "spear," and to bring "golden
ingots" to adorn God's "temples" (11. 98-105). India is
told to attend with its "fruits and flow'rs," "mines and
med'cines," its "brilliant crown/ And vest of fur," "Pome
granates and the rich ananas" (11. 106-115), all of which
glimpse the abundance of the Song to David and Jubilate
Agno.
Smart next turns to Europe and reaffirms the fact that
God exists in man as well as in nature. He calls on Europe,
the seat of Christianity, to bring the wonder that is with
in man, "the Spirit's flaming sword," the immortal soul:
But chiefly thou, Europa, seat of Grace
And Christian excellence, His goodness own,
Forth from ten thousand temples pour His praise;
Clad in the armour of the living God
Approach, unsheath the Spirit's flaming sword;
Faith's shield, Salvation's glory,— compass'd helm
With fortitude assume, and o'er your heart
Fair Truth's invulnerable breast-plate spread;
Then join the general chorus of all worlds,
And let the song of Charity begin
In strains seraphic, and melodious prayer:
(11. 116-126)
The Christian warrior image is related to Smart's admira
tion for David, and it plays an important role in the Song
to David and Jubilate Aano. Smart came to think of himself
58
as a priest, or prophet, destined to reawaken men to their
proper offices of praise. Part of this notion was the image
of himself as a Christian captain who would make England the
center from which to spread his revival to the wcrld. Here,
in an earlier form, all Europe is the chosen land that will
wear God's livery and serve as an example for the benighted
regions.
Like the other Seaton pieces, this one concludes with
a hymn of praise. The "general chorus of all worlds" joins
in the "song of Charity":
"0 All-sufficient, All-beneficent,
"Thou God of Goodness and of Glory, hear 1
"Thou, who to lowliest minds does condescend,
"Assuming passions to enforce Thy laws,
"Adopting jealousy to prove Thy love:
"Thou, who resign'd humility uphold,
"Ev'n as the florist props the drooping rose,
"But quell tyrannic pride with peerless power,
"Ev'n as the tempest rives the stubborn oak:
"0 All-sufficient, All-beneficent,
"Thou God of Goodness and of Glory, hear 1
"Bless all mankind, and bring them in the end
"To heaven, to immortality, and THEE1"
(11. 127-139)
In the other Seaton poems, the final hymn delineated the
idea of praise. Here, the mechanics are different. Though
praise ties this last poem to the other four, it does not
have the same place within the poem itself. Praise no
59
longer is a secondary theme. Instead, it is balanced
against the demonstration of God's goodness throughout the
poem. As Smart says at the beginning of the poem, his muse
aims "to praise/ Her God on earth, as He is prais'd in
heaven" (11. 16-17).
Smart finished the last Seaton poem in October of 1755,
and only nine months later he was imprisoned. The next
eight years would be spent in different asylums, until he
emerged in 1763 to publish the Song to David.
Too much emphasis has been placed on Smart’s madness
and incarceration as the factors that made the Song to David
and Jubilate Agno possible, however. His imprisonment and
madness were related to the emotional changes that he ex
perienced; but the Seaton poems show that intellectually the
continuity in Smart's work also was important to the great
poems.
Emotionally, Smart did change. At the time of the
Seaton pieces, he put his faith in reason and the intellect,
and was suspicious of imagination and feeling. In 1754 or
1755, he began to reject this attitude. Through sickness,
or in some other way, he apprehended the Almighty at such
close quarters that he was totally convinced of His
60
existence. Smart accepted the Lord with complete faith at a
deep emotional level. In his poetry, it meant a new outlook
that depended on the reality of God's existence within
nature and within man.
There was little change in Smart's intellectual inven
tory, however. The ideas in the Song to David and Jubilate
Aano would be infused with a special brilliance; but as we
shall see, nearly all of them are rooted in the conception
of praise that was developed in the Seaton poems.
CHAPTER II
SONG TO DAVID
Smart was set free in late January or early February,
1 2
1763. The Sona to David was printed on April 6. Most
critics have felt that it was written in the two months
after Smart's release, when "his step forth into liberty
coincided with a sudden coordination of brain and hand and
3
mental vision." Arthur Sherbo has questioned this view.
He suggests instead that the Sona was composed in 1759 and
4
1760, concurrent with the middle sections of Jubilate Aano.
^■Devlin, p. 131.
2Brittain, p. 292. All quotations from the Sona to
David are from Brittain's book; and hereafter in this
chapter, the poem will be referred to as the Sona.
^Devlin, p. 138.
^■"Probable Time of Composition of Smart's Sona to
David. Psalms, and Hymns and Spiritual Songs." JEGP, LV
(1956), 41-57.
61
62
5
Neither theory can muster conclusive evidence. The
Sona could have been written at any time between Smart's
first imprisonment and its publication, and there is no way
of knowing whether it came before, after, or during the time
that Smart was working on Jubilate Agno.
This upsets the common practice of seeing Jubilate Agno
as "the experiments and the probings of intellect and
^The normal view is based on nothing more than the fact
that the Song is Smart's greatest poem, and dramatically it
is pleasing to see it as his poetic triumph that coincided
with his return to the world. Sherbo's view cannot be veri
fied either. He argues from similar lines in the Song and
in the middle parts of Jubilate Agno. but this can only
show parallels, which do not necessarily mean that the two
poems were written at the same time. There is even some
indication that the Sona may have been in existence earlier
than Sherbo suggests. The poetaster, William Woty, addressed
Smart in early 1759, when Garrick was producing a benefit
for Smart, in the following way:
Unhappy Bard', whose elevated soul
From earth took flight and reach'd the starry pole:
Whose harp coelestial lies in broken state;
Affecting emblem of its master's fatel
Ah me', no more, I fear, its tuneful strings,
Touch'd by his hand, will praise the Kina of Kings.
(Shrubs of Parnassus [London, 1760], p. 55)
This seems strikingly like an echo of the first three lines
of the first stanza of the Song;
0 THOU, that sit'st upon a throne,
With harp of high majestic tone,
To praise the King of kings;
63
g
spirit" with which Smart prepared for the Sona. Though the
Sona is much more satisfying because it is complete, we are
mistaken if we conclude that it is more mature, and must
have been written later.
In 1746, Smart had considered David as the subject for
a long poem, and a number of things finally prompted him to
attempt a task that earlier had seemed "too high" for his
7
"genius." Most important was his new sense of assurance,
the feeling that he truly belonged to God; but he also was
intent on making David his subject because of the ideas that
he had developed in the Seaton pieces.
Smart had reached the conclusion that the universe was
a perfectly functioning machine in which all things praised
the Lord by fulfilling the offices He designated for them.
David was a perfect subject because he was the best example
of a man carrying out the role of praise that God had given
him. In the ritual, David represented the archetypal
g
praiser, the "great Author of the Book of Gratitude"; and
additionally, he was an individual who praised the Lord
^Bond, p. 15.
7Ainsworth and Noyes, pp. 22-23.
^Brittain, p. 294.
64
through his actions. David was a Christian warrior who
devoted his life to serving God.
With the psalmist as a subject, the Song could fulfill
the double purpose, to confess the Lord's presence, and
report His praise. Throughout the Seaton pieces, Smart had
separated man and nature to show that the Almighty existed
"Deep in the human heart," and in "every atom/ The Air, the
9
Earth, or azure Main contains." The use of David enabled
Smart to employ the same division in the Sona. The first
half of the poem is devoted to showing God's presence in
David, or man; and the second half reveals the Almighty in
nature. This accounts for the fact that David is mentioned
only three times in the twenty-one stanzas of the "ADORA
TION" section.'*’ 9
David also gave Smart a focal point in singing the
Lord's praises. As one of God's finest human creations, he
opened the way for the celebration of "the mighty source/ Of
all things."'*'^
The logical form of the Seaton pieces was carried over
9On the Eternity of the Supreme Being. 11. 1-4.
10Stanzas LI-LXXI. i;LStanza XVIII.
65
to the Sona. Though his contemporaries saw it as a "strange
12
mixture of dun obscure and glowing genius," Smart accur-
13
ately noted its "exact Regularity and Method." Since
then, critics have begun to understand its order, and we
now recognize the basic stanza divisions. There are two
sources for this knowledge, Smart's own "Contents" that
14
preceded the poem, and R. D. Havens' article which points
out that the stanzas also may be divided into groups of
three and seven, the magic numbers.
Havens describes the structure of the Sona rather than
its content. His scheme differs substantially from Smart's
in only one section. Havens divides stanzas LI-LXXI into
three groups of seven, each stanza of which includes the
^James Boswell, Letters. ed. Chauncey B. Tinker (Ox
ford, 1924), I, 39.
l^Brittain, p. 295.
^"The Structure of Smart's Sona to David." RES. XIV
(1938), 178-182. Havens divides the poem in the following
way: three stanzas of invocation (I-III), fourteen de
scribing David (IV-XVII), nine on the subjects of which
David sang (XVIII-XXVI), three on what his singing accom
plished (XXVII-XXIX), nine on the pillars (XXX-XXXVIII),
a stanza of introduction (XXXIX), nine on the decalogue
(XL-XLVIII), a stanza of conclusion (XLIX), a stanza of
introduction (L), three groups of seven stanzas all of
which have the phrase "for ADORATION" (LI-LXXI), and finally
five groups of three stanzas each (LXXII-LXXXVI).
66
15
phrase "for ADORATION." Smart divided them into two
groups, LII-LXIV which provides an "exercise upon the sea
sons, and the right use of them," and LXV-LXXI which are an
"exercise upon the senses, and how to subdue them."
The Sona opens with three stanzas that Smart called the
"Invocation":
0 THOU, that sit'st upon a throne,
With harp of high majestic tone,
To praise the King of kings ;
And voice of heav'n-ascending swell,
Which, while its deeper notes excell,
Clear, as a clarion, rings:
To bless each valley, grove and coast,
And charm the cherubs to the post
Of gratitude in throngs;
To keep the days on Zion's mount,
And send the year to his account,
With dances and with songs:
0 Servant of God's holiest charge,
The minister of praise at large,
Which thou may'st now receive;
From thy blest mansion hail and hear,
From topmost eminence appear
To this the wreath I weave.
Smart will celebrate the "minister of praise at large," the
leader of the familiar grand chorus, who directs the uni
versal worshipers with "dances and with songs," the same
music that appeared in the Seaton pieces.
■^Havens, p. 181.
67
Stanza IV, which Smart says shows "The excellence and
lustre of David's character in twelve points of view," be
gins the demonstration of God's presence in David:
Great, valiant, pious, good, and clean,
Sublime, contemplative, serene,
Strong, constant, pleasant, wise!
Bright effluence of exceeding grace;
Best man!— the swiftness and the race,
The peril, and the prize'.
Smart's David recalls Patrick Delany's evaluation of the
psalmist, "David is a character, which stands single, in
the accounts of the world; equally eminent, and unri
valled" (p. 615). Brittain has noted the relationship of
these "twelve cardinal virtues" to two passages in Jubilate
16
Aano. In one, Smart associates them with the twelve sons
of Jacob:
For there be twelve cardinal virtues the gifts of the
twelve sons of Jacob.
For Reuben is Great. God be gracious to Lord Falmouth.
For Simeon is Valiant. God be gracious to the Duke of
Somerset.
For Levi is Pious. God be gracious to the Bishop of
London.
For Judah is Good. God be gracious to Lord Granville.
For Dan is Clean— neat, dextrous, apt, active, com
pact. God be gracious to Draper.
For Naphtali is Sublime. God be gracious to Chester
field.
^Brittain, pp. 298-299. Respectively, the passages in
Jubilate Aano are B2 603-615 and B2 355-358.
68
For Gad is Contemplative. God be gracious to Lord
Northampton.
For Ashur is Happy. God be gracious to George Bowes.
For Issachar is Strong. God be gracious to the Duke
of Dorsett.
For Zabulon is Constant. God be gracious to Lord Bath.
For Joseph is Pleasant. God be gracious to Lord
Bolingbroke.
For Benjamin is Wise. God be gracious to Honeywood.
Quite rightly, Brittain observes that the "evident reason
for Smart's description of David's character in terms of
these twelve virtues is that David may be shown as the
embodiment of all that was finest in the Israelites— the
epic prototype of his people" (p. 299). David is the
chosen man of the chosen race, God's finest human creation—
the "Best man."
Brittain does not point out the significance of the
second passage, however. Smart associates the twelve vir
tues with the points of the compass:
For there be twelve cardinal virtues— three to the
East Greatness, Valour, Piety.
For there be three to the West— Goodness, Purity and
Sublimity.
For there be three to the North— Meditation, Happiness,
Strength.
For there be three to the South— Constancy, Pleasantry
and Wisdom.
On the one hand, the passage indicates the completeness of
the twelve virtues. They make a circle just as the points
of the compass do; and the closed circle is a perfect
symbol, entire within itself, yet able to encompass "the
swiftness and the race,/ The peril, and the prize 1" As an
embodiment of the individual, the virtues represent the
complete man. On the other hand, they are associated with
the twelve gates to the city from The Revelation of St. John
XXI: 12-13. The three gates on the east, three gates on the
north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west
parallel the virtues, and they suggest that these character
istics will win one entrance into the new Jerusalem. David
is the man good for all time— both the finest example from
17
a past when men "were ten feet high in general," and the
individual best equipped to enter the holy city when the
day of judgment arrives.
At least part of the background for the twelve virtues
comes from Delany's picture of David. His final paean to
the psalmist embodies all of them:
To sum up all*. A true believer, and zealous adorer
of GOD; teacher of his law, and worship, and inspirer
of his praise1 A glorious example, a perpetual, and
inexhaustible fountain of true piety 1 A consummate,
and unequalled hero, a skilful, and a fortunate cap
tain 1 A steady patriot, a wise ruler, a faithful, a
generous, and a magnanimous friend! And, what is rarer,
a no less generous, and magnanimous enemy! A true
17Jubilate Aano. C 91.
70
penitent, a divine musician, a sublime poet, and an
inspired prophet I By birth, a peasant; by merit, a
prince! In youth, a hero; in manhood, a monarch; in
age, a saint! (p. 616)
Stanzas V-XVI, which elaborate the virtues, make their
relationship to Delany clear. Each of the stanzas provides
historical proof for one of the virtues; and two of them
contain ideas that appeared in Delany's book, but that had
no biblical antecedents. Stanza VII treats the third car
dinal virtue;
Pious— magnificent and grand;
'Twas he the famous temple plann'd;
(The seraph in his soul)
Foremost to give the Lord his dues,
Foremost to bless the welcome news,
And foremost to condole.
Smart's phrase, "seraph in his soul," originates in Delany's
assertion of divine inspiration in David's plan for the
18
temple. Similarly, line 5 is indebted to Delany. It
refers to David's reaction when the prophet Nathan told him
he could not build the temple, but that his son would.
Delany avoids David's disappointment, and stresses his
19
gratitude for the fact that his son later would succeed.
18Brittain, p. 299.
l^Brittain, p. 299.
71
This is the suggestion behind Smart's David who is "Foremost
to bless the welcome news."
Stanza XVI, which explores the twelfth virtue, also is
linked to Delany:
Wise— in recovery from his fall,
Whence rose his eminence o'er all,
Of all the most revil'd;
The light of Israel in his ways,
Wise are his precepts, prayer and praise,
And counsel to his child.
Delany had stressed David's penitence after having taken
Bathsheba and killed Uriah. "Revolve his whole life, from
the hour of this guilt, and you will find it little else
20
than one train of humiliation, and repentance before God."
Even clearer is Delany's influence on the last two lines,
which contain an idea that is not in the Bible. His book
suggested that in Proverbs "the attentive reader will find
all the precepts, from the beginning of the fourth chapter
to the end of the ninth, to be only recitals of David's
21
instruction to his son Solomon." and these are the "coun
sel to his child" to which Smart refers.
Three other stanzas in the group also should be noted.
Stanza VIII provides evidence of Smart's mature artistry:
^Brittain, p. 300. ^^-Brittain, p. 300.
72
Good— from Jehudah's genuine vein,
From God's best nat\ire good in grain,
His aspect and his heart;
To pity, to forgive, to save,
Witness En-gedi's conscious cave,
And Shimei1s blunted dart.
The phrase "conscious cave" captures the essential meaning
of the incident at En-gedi. At the simplest level, it re
calls the presence of God, and reveals the divine paradox
that can give life to inanimate objects, and consciousness
to the darkest caverns. Additionally, it unfolds the moral
significance of what happened there. David's triumph is
one of goodness— as Delany said, a perfect example of
"superiority over revenge" (p. 61); but it also is a tri
umph of consciousness over emotion. David's better thoughts
stop him from taking his natural revenge; and the whole
meaning of the cave is summed up in "conscious," which re
veals the roots of his generous action.
Stanzas IX and XV introduce one of the important motifs
that constantly will be repeated. Stanza IX considers the
fifth virtue, cleanliness:
Clean— if perpetual prayer be pure,
And love, which could itself innure
To fasting and to fear—
Clean in his gestures, hands, and feet,
To smite the lyre, the dance compleat,
To play the sword and spear.
David is "Clean," or pure, to "smite the lyre" that directs
the song and dance with which the "sons and daughters of
22
Israel" poured out their praise. Likewise, when the wor
ship is done, he can lead the Lord's soldiers with "sword
and spear." He is the Almighty's priest and warrior; or in
Delany's terms, "an inspired prophet" and "a skilful, and a
fortunate captain" (p. 616). This is the essential image of
David with which Smart identifies. David is the Christian
warrior, par excellence— an ideal that began in the Seaton
poems, and that is central in Jubilate Agno.
Stanza XV, which considers the eleventh virtue, also
incorporates the Christian warrior ideal:
Pleasant— and various as the year;
Man, soul, and angel, without peer,
Priest, champion, sage and boy;
In armour, or in ephod clad,
His pomp, his piety was glad;
Majestic was his joy.
David served the Lord with joy and enthusiasm. As Delany
said, he was a "zealous adorer of GOD" (p. 616). Brittain
has noted that the second line points out the "tri-partite
23
nature of man," a "minor theme"; but a much more important
^Delany, p. 339.
23p. 298. Brittain also elaborates on the idea on pp.
74
division is the twofold nature of the Christian hero in
line 4. He is equally prepared to serve God "In armour, or
in ephod," as warrior or as priest.
Though Havens includes stanza XVII in the section on
the virtues, its function is transitional:
His muse, bright angel of his verse,
Gives balm for all the thorns that pierce,
For all the pangs that rage;
Blest light, still gaining on the gloom,
The more than Michal of his bloom,
Th' Abishag of his age.
287-288. He maintains that "Smart's concept of the tri
partite nature of man" "grows out of his interest in angel-
ology." The most "original" part of it is "that each in
dividual has his tutelary angel." This "spiritual guide"
is "not so much an outside influence, however, as an essen
tial part of man— one element, in fact, of man's triune
nature."
This "theory developed in his mind into a clear doc
trine of trichotomy," which Brittain says is a "heresy." A
"recognition of this element in the poet's belief makes
readily understandable his otherwise puzzling description
of David as 'man, soul and angel without peer (Sona to
David. XV).'" Similarly, Smart's assertion that "Man's made
of mercy, soul, and sense (Song to David, XLII)" "reveals in
a few words a great deal about his conception of the three
fold nature of man." Sense is "the rational, earth-bound,
three-dimensional part of one." Mercy corresponds to the
angel, "that part of a human being which is divine, the
purely spiritual essence." The soul is "between these two,"
"a receptive and communicative agent, bringing to the
'sense-man1 nature intuitive glimpses of the eternal and the
divine, and judging the flights of the 'angel-mercy' by the
aid of human reason."
Brittain's assertion that this amounts to a heresy
has been challenged by Karina Side ("Christopher Smart's
Heresy," MLN. DXIX [1954], 316-319).
75
David's muse is greater consolation than either the wife of
his youth, or the woman of his old age. The stanza moves
Smart into a position to begin the second long section of
the poem, the enumeration of the things about which David
sang. It also reasserts the primary value of man's spiri
tual side. The long description of David celebrates the
human qualities that made him the "Best man," but this
stanza affirms that even he was unable to find anything in
the world so satisfying as the turning to God. In his
verse, or praise, David found the consolation that the
finest human feelings are unable to give.
Stanza XVIII begins the description of "The subjects he
made choice of":
He sung of God— the mighty source
Of all things— the stupendous force
On which all strength depends;
From whose right arm, beneath whose eyes,
All period, pow'r, and enterprize
Commences, reigns, and ends.
Angels— their ministry and meed,
Which to and fro with blessings speed,
Or with their citterns wait;
Where Michael with his millions bows,
Where dwells the seraph and his spouse,
The cherub and her mate.
Of man— the semblance and effect
Of God and Love— the Saint elect
For infinite applause—
To rule the land, and briny broad,
To be laborious in his laud,
And heroes in his cause.
In the Seaton pieces, Smart repeatedly used a hierarchical
structure in demonstrating God's existence in nature. Here,
a similar pattern is employed, though on a scale that spans
the whole universe. The first three stanzas carry Smart to
its midpoint. David sings of the divine, semi-divine, and
the human. Additionally, the picture of man provides an
other instance of the Christian warrior. The proper office
for men in the universal hierarchy is two-sided, "To be
laborious in his laud,/ And heroes in his cause."
In stanza XXI, Smart begins the first elaboration of
the theme that will dominate the second half of the poem,
God's presence manifested in nature:
The world— the clustring spheres he made,
The glorious light, the soothing shade,
Dale, champaign, grove, and hill;
The multitudinous abyss,
Where secrecy remains in bliss,
And wisdom hides her skill.
God has created an infinite number of wonders, and Smart
captures a-sense of this fullness through the use of oppo
sition. "The glorious light, the soothing shade," suggest
that the Almighty is responsible not only for these ex
tremes, but for everything between them too.
77
Smart enlarges the description of the natural wonders
of which David sang:
Trees, plants, and flow'rs— of virtuous root;
Gem yielding blossom, yielding fruit,
Choice gums and precious balm;
Bless ye the nosegay in the vale,
And with the sweetners of the gale
Enrich the thankful psalm.
Of fowl— e'en ev'ry beak and wing
Which chear the winter, hail the spring,
That live in peace or prey;
They that make music, or that mock,
The quail, the brave domestic cock,
The raven, swan, and jay.
Of fishes— ev'ry size and shape,
Which nature frames of light escape,
Devouring man to shun:
The shells are in the wealthy deep,
The shoals upon the surface leap,
And love the glancing sun.
Of beasts— the beaver plods his task;
While the sleek tygers roll and bask,
Nor yet the shades arouse;
Her cave the mining coney scoops;
Where o'er the mead the mountain stoops,
The kids exult and brouse.
Of gems— their virtue and.their price,
Which hid in earth from man's device,
Their darts of lustre sheathe;
The jasper of the master's stamp,
The topaz blazing like a lamp
Among the mines beneath.
The overwhelming impression is one of diversity and abun
dance; and it is achieved through the use of opposition.
In each stanza, Smart establishes basic contrasts that
suggest God has created everything between them. They in
clude the buds that yield "blossom" or "fruit"; the nosegay
that grows peacefully "in the vale" and the "sweetners of
the gale"; the birds that "chear the winter" and those that
"hail the spring"; the birds that live "in peace or prey";
the birds that "make music, or that mock"; the fish that
live in shells "in the wealthy deep" and the ones that
gather in schools and leap "upon the surface"; the beaver
that "plods his task" and the tigers that "roll and bask";
the coney that works diligently scooping her "cave" and the
kids that "exult and brouse"; the opaque, deeply-colored
"jasper" and the clear, brighter "topaz." Brittain has
suggested that the opposition is between "the natural and
the cultivated" (p. 300), but this is only one of the con
trasts in the passage. There is also an opposition between
sweetness and strength, which will be repeated later in the
poem; and there are other contrasts that cannot be fitted
into any pattern, but that help create a feeling of diver
sity .
The next three stanzas are transitional. Smart turns
to the results of David's singing, of as he describes it in
the "Contents," "He obtains power over infernal spirits,
and the malignity of his enemies; wins the heart of Michal"
79
Blest was the tenderness he felt
When to his graceful harp he knelt,
And did for audience call;
When satan with his hand he quell'd,
And in serene suspence he held
The frantic throes of Saul.
His furious foes no more malign'd
As he such melody divin'd,
And sense and soul detain'd?
Now striking strong, now soothing soft,
He sent the godly sounds aloft,
Or in delight refrain'd.
When up to heav'n his thoughts he pil'd
Prom fervent lips fair Michal smil'd,
As blush to blush she stood;
And chose herself the queen, and gave
Her utmost from her heart, "so brave,
And plays his hymns so good."
Like the section on the virtues, this one is based on his
torical evidence. The potency of David's songs is proved
from incidents in his life. Also noteworthy are the echoes
of stanza XVII. Just as with David himself, so with Saul.
David's singing gives them both "balm for all the thorns
that pierce,/ For all the pangs that rage."
The next section is the most difficult part of the
poem. Numerous critics have puzzled over it without pro-
24
viding a satisfactory explanation. Their error has been
^There have been three explanations for the pillars
that have won some acceptance. The first was stated by an
anonymous reviewer in The Monthly Review. XXVIII (1763),
320, when the poem first appeared. "These we conjecture are
80
in going to outside sources without having studied the Sona
made choice of, as consecrated for the following reasons.
Alpha and Omega from a well-known text in the Revelation.
Iota, Eta, and Sigma because they are used to signify our
Saviour, on altars and pulpits. Theta as being the initial
of God; and Gamma as denoting the number three, held sacred
by some Christians." This explanation is able to explain
all the pillars, but it has obvious flaws. It makes no
effort to connect them to one another, and it also offers
nothing that elaborates them in relation to the rest of the
poem.
The second explanation has been the most popular one.
It seems to have appeared first as a footnote to the Song
in Odell Shepard and Paul Spencer Wood, eds., English Prose
and Poetrv. 1660-1800 (Cambridge, Mass., 1934). "The entire
passage . . . is saturated with Masonic symbolism. The
seven pillars are themselves a Masonic emblem. Alpha and
Gamma, taken together, suggest the Compasses and Square;
Eta may stand for Jacob's Ladder, Theta for the eye, and
Iota for the Plumb-line. Obviously, the Creator is imagined
as the architect or mason of the universe. The passage is
organic in a poem addressed to David, who planned the Temple
of Jerusalem— with which the Masonic Order was supposed, in
Smart's time, to have begun."
This explanation has numerous difficulties. In addi
tion to explaining only five of the pillars, it suggests
that the Song can only be understood by a Masonic initiate.
It seems unlikely that Smart would have used symbols that he
knew most people could not comprehend. The most telling
objection to it was advanced by Devlin, however. He took
the passage to the curator of the Masonic Library in London,
and was told that there was nothing in Masonic lore to sug
gest the use of these seven letters (p. 141).
The Masonic elements in Smart's poetry are part of
the larger question of his knowledge of occult literature.
Stead put heavy emphasis on occult writers in his notes to
Jubilate Agno. but he undoubtedly overdid it. Arthur Sherbo
has demonstrated that all of the passages that Stead related
to the mystics can be explained in Christian terms ("Christ
opher Smart's Knowledge of Occult Literature," JHI. XVIII
[1957], 233-241). Sherbo does accept the idea that there
are Masonic elements in Smart's poetry ("Christopher Smart,
81
thoroughly. It provides a number of clues that suggest a
new reading in which David is the speaker in the pillar
stanzas, and each of the pillars represents an individual
psalm.
Before studying the passage, a few of the general
things that contribute to its richness should be mentioned.
Biblically, it has several roots. Foremost, there is the
story of creation, but it also owes something to a quotation
from Proverbs IX: 1, and another from I Samuel II: 8:
Free and Accepted Mason," JEGP. LIV [1955], 664-669), but
his proofs seem no more convincing than Stead's. There are
two concrete facts that suggest Smart was a Mason, a refer
ence from Jubilate Agno. "For I am the Lord's builder and
free and accepted Mason in Christ Jesus," and the existence
of a poem in Henry Sadler's Masonic Reprints and Revelations
signed by "C. Smart, A. M." (Wallace E. Caldwell, "A Christ
opher Smart Attribution," N & q. CCIV [November 1959], 411).
But until someone has demonstrated that Smart clearly in
tended to give his poems Masonic meanings, it seems wiser
to accept the Christian explanations that can be given them
more easily. There may be Masonic or occult elements in
Smart's work, but they have not yet been convincingly re
vealed.
The third explanation of the pillars is Devlin's
(pp. 140-149). He begins with a quotation from Jubilate
Aano. "For there is mystery in numbers," and interprets each
of the figures in relation to the numerical value it had in
classical Greek. The unifying element in his scheme is that
each of the figures is related to "some aspect or appear
ance of the Redeemer." Devlin creates an elaborate struc
ture of explanation, but is unable to carry it through all
the figures. Sigma, or eighteen, he admits, "appears to
have no significance whatsoever" as a number.
82
Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn
out her seven pillars . . .
for the pillars of the earth are the LORD'S,
and he hath set the world upon them.
In addition, the first and last pillars are related to the
book of Revelation I; 11, "I am Alpha and Omega, the first
and the last."
In Smart's own work, the passage recalls the Seaton
poems. He had started to construct a fanciful cosmic geo
graphy, and the pillars are an elaboration of that scheme,
25
particularly of the "two prime pillars of the universe."
They are part of the fuller picture that never was perfectly
/
finished, but that can be pieced together to some degree
with statements like the following one from Jubilate Agno.
"For he hath fixed the earth upon arches and pillars, and
the flames of hell flow under it" (B-^ 158) .
The clues to a real understanding of the passage are
in the poem, however. Several things indicate that David
is speaking, and that the pillars represent individual
psalms. As Brittain has pointed out, the subject of the
sentence that describes the passage in the "Contents" is
carried over from the preceding section, so that what is
250n the Eternity of the Supreme Being. 1. 54.
said is, that David "Shews that the pillars of knowledge are
the monuments of God's works in the first week" (p. 301).
In lines 1-3 of stanza XXXVIII, which immediately follows
the pillar section, "O DAVID, scholar of the Lord!/ Such is
thy science, whence reward/ And infinite degree," "thy
science" refers back to the pillars and again connects them
26
to David. Additionally, there are foreshadowings of the
pillars in stanza XXIX and stanza X, which indicate that
David's voice is building them— an idea consistent with
stanza LXXIX, in which the worshipers "build/ Their heart-
directed vows." In the first line of XXIX, "When up to
heav'n his thoughts he pil'd," the verb "pil'd," gives this
impression, just as the phrase, "tow1ring tongue" does in
stanza X, "Sublime— invention ever young,/ Of vast concep
tion, tow'ring tongue,/ To God the eternal theme."
Similarly, there is evidence that David's speech is
psalms. The three stanzas immediately preceding the pillar
section prepare for the idea at the simplest description
level. Smart portrays David seated at his harp, playing
and singing his psalms; and this leads naturally into a
description of some of them.
^Brittain, p. 303.
84
The parallels between the stanzas on the subjects of
which David sang, and the pillar section also suggest that
the passage is a series of psalms. It can be argued that
the two sections are similar because Smart was portraying
all creation in both of them, but the extent of the simi
larity is so great that the parallels seem to go beyond
that. For example, stanza XXXI echoes XVIII:
XVJ-II
He sung of God— the mighty source
Of all things— the stupendous force
On which all strength depends;
From whose right arm, beneath whose eyes,
All period, pow'r, and enterprize
Commences, reigns, and ends.
XXXI
Alpha, the cause of causes, first
In station, fountain, whence the burst
Of light, and blaze of day;
Whence bold attempt, and brave advance,
Have motion, life, and ordinance,
And heav'n itself its stay.
The "cause of causes" recalls "the mighty source/ Of all
things." "Whence bold attempt, and brave advance,/ Have
motion, life, and ordinance," repeats the last three lines
27
of the earlier stanza. The parallels are close enough to
In addition to this one instance, stanza XIX can be
85
suggest that, as stanzas XVIII-XXVI present the subjects of
which David sang, the pillar stanzas present examples of
his songs, or psalms.
A close comparison of the pillars and some of the
psalms will show the direct link between them. The unique
character of Smart's translation of the psalms was noted in
relation to the Seaton pieces, and it is helpful to refer to
his versions as well as the biblical ones. Smart had tem
pered the violence of the psalms with Christian gentleness,
and often this made for fundamental changes in their mean
ing.
The fact that the figures on the pillars represent
numbers as well as letters in classical Greek also should
be noted. These numbers indicate the particular psalms that
correspond to the stanzas. Alpha stands for one, Gamma for
three, Eta for seven, Theta for eight, Iota for nine, Sigma
for eighteen, and Omega for twenty-four; and it is these
seven psalms (1, 3, 7, 8, 9, 18, 24) that must be compared
to the pillar stanzas.
In keeping with the system that is suggested in the
related to stanza XXXII, stanzas XX and XXII to XXXIII,
stanza XXI to stanza XXXIV, and stanzas XXIII and XXIV to
stanza XXXV.
86
"Contents," the first pillar portrays the first day of
creation:
Alpha, the cause of causes, first
In station, fountain, whence the burst
Of light, and blaze of day;
Whence bold attempt, and brave advance,
Have motion, life, and ordinance,
And heav'n itself its stay.
The first three lines describe the first day of creation.
The second three suggest other things, beside the first
"burst/ Of light," that come from God. They present a
second idea that links the stanza to its corresponding
psalm. From God, man gains the power to accomplish great
action, the "bold attempt" and "brave advance." In the
first psalm, the link is clear because this idea is the
main theme. In Smart's version, a contrast is established
between the sinner and the man who chooses God. The sinner
will not succeed, but for the man who "is blest of God thro'
Christ," it will be otherwise:
His leaf shall spread a lasting shade,
Of ever-green that may not fade,
Or wear a languid hue;
And look ye forward to his end,
Success shall every work attend,
He takes in hand to do.
The next stanza presents the second day of creation,
but it is linked to the third psalm:
87
Gamma supports the glorious arch
On which angelic legions march,
And is with sapphires pav'd;
Thence the fleet clouds are sent adrift,
And thence the painted folds, that lift
The crimson veil, are wav'd.
t
The "painted folds" and "crimson veil" are part of Smart's
cosmic geography, related to the "painted chambers of the
heavens" from the first Seaton poem (1. 80). The "painted
folds" are also used in Smart's Psalm CIV. God hangs "the
skies in beauteous blue,/ Wav'd like a curtain to the view,/
Down heav'n's high dome in folds" (11. 10-12). The "painted
folds" are the blue skies hung from heaven; and in the Gamma
stanza, they drive away the "crimson veil" or pre-dawn sky.
This can be related to the third psalm. David, beset by
enemies, prays, "Lord, how my bosom foes increase,/ How
num'rous their allies;/ The troublers of my peace/ In mul
titudes arise"; and by the conclusion of the psalm, God has
assured him, "Thro* him I will not be dismay'd,/ Tho'
thousand thousands rage." The motif through which this
takes place links the psalm to the stanza. The dejected
king lies down to sleep, and when he awakens, he has been
assured. The dawn is a symbol of that assurance. The
"crimson veil" of the Gamma stanza is not just the pre-dawn
sky, but also the dejection that oppresses David. Properly,
88
it is "crimson" because, at the time of the psalm, David was
engaged in the bloody wars with the rebellious Absalom.
The Eta stanza presents the third day of creation:
Eta with living sculpture breathes,
With verdant carvings, flow'ry wreathes
Of never-wasting bloom;
In strong relief his goodly base
All instruments of labour grace,
The trowel, spade, and loom.
The original seventh psalm is concerned with one aspect of
God, divine justice that rewards the righteous and punishes
the wicked. God's tools are the "sword," the "bow," and the
"instruments of death." In Smart’s version, however, two
characteristics of God carry equal weight, divine justice
and divine mercy; and the link to the stanza comes in the
element Smart added to the psalm. The symbols with which
he depicts divine mercy are the tools of the Lord. He
transforms the warlike instruments of the biblical psalm:
His swords are turn'd to shepherd's crooks,
The breast-plate and the helm;
His darts and spears to pruning hooks,
To dress the vine-clad elm.
These tools can be linked to the "instruments of labor" in
the stanza. As symbols of divine mercy, they bring heavenly
grace, or goodwill, to the psalm, just as the stanza says
they do.
89
The stanza also provides another suggestion that David
is singing in the pillar section. The "goodly base" may
refer not only to part of the pillar, but to the "deeper
notes" in David's voice that appeared in stanza I. The
image is sustained in "instruments" and "grace." The "in
struments," in the musical sense, "grace," or embellish with
grace notes, David's song. The words recall a passage from
the last Seaton poem, in which the organs "grace th' har
monious choir, celestial feast/ To pious ears, and med'cine
of the mind;/ The thrilling trebles and the manly base/ Join
in accordance meet . . ." (11. 61-64).
The Theta stanza portrays the fourth day, and is linked
to the eighth psalm;
Next Theta stands to the Supreme—
Who form'd, in number, sign, and scheme,
Th' illustrious lights that are;
And one address'd his saffron robe,
And one, clad in a silver globe,
Held rule with ev'ry star.
Smart's version of the psalm, which praises God as creator,
centers on the question, "what is man, that he should find/
A place in his Creator's mind?" Preceding this, there is
an introductory stanza;
I will my soaring thoughts exalt
To yonder heaven's cerulean vault,
Whose height thy fingers form'd?
The moon attended at thy call,
Made marvelously fair, and all
The stars around her swarm'd!
The glory of the heavens not only leads into the question of
man's glory, but in the moon and the stars, it provides a
link that foreshadows lines 5-6 of the Theta stanza.
Though the parallels are close in the moon and stars,
nothing in the psalm corresponds to the sun in line 4 of
the stanza. There is some difficulty in explaining this,
but it probably can be accounted for by the almost impos
sible demands Smart put upon himself. The selection of
Alpha and Omega from the biblical text, and the decision to
portray the days of creation were severe limitations. Be
cause as numbers Alpha and Omega are one and twenty-four,
Smart had to select seven psalms from within the first
twenty-four, rather than the entire 150. Also, for each of
the stanzas to be a unit, the meaning of its second thought
had to retain some continuity with the day of creation pre
sented in the first thought. Beyond this, as we shall see
later, Smart was selecting the Greek figures for the letter
values as well as their numerical ones.
In the fourth pillar stanza, Smart lost control of
these complexities. He was forced to use the eighth psalm
91
because Theta was imperative to his letter scheme. This
reversed the process of selection. Rather than choosing the
psalm because of a relationship he saw between it and the
fourth day, Smart was forced to take it, and then find his
link. It should come as no surprise, consequently, that the
link is not as satisfactory as the three earlier ones.
The Iota stanza portrays the fifth day of creation, and
is linked to the ninth psalm:
Iota's tun'd to choral hymns
Of those that fly, while he that swims
In thankful safety lurks;
And foot, and chapitre, and niche,
The various histories enrich
Of God's recorded works.
The last three lines are ambiguous. Either the "foot, and
chapitre, and niche" "enrich" the "histories," or the his
tories enrich the parts of the pillar. It is not a serious
problem, however, since either meaning can be related to the
psalm. The theme of Smart's psalm is presented in its
opening stanza, "I will make melodious mention/ Of the
wonders of thy word." To understand this, it is helpful to
return to the biblical version. The corresponding passage
reveals the relationship between the psalm and the Iota
stanza, "I will praise thee, 0 LORD, with my whole heart; I
will shew forth all thy marvellous works." The intention
92
of the psalm is to glorify God's marvelous works, or in
Smart's version, the "wonders" of his word. These works
can be linked to the "recorded works" of the "various his
tories," so that the Iota stanza means either that the psalm
enriches the histories by recounting a number of things that
belong in them, or that it is enriched by incorporating a
series of events from those histories.
The Sigma stanza presents the sixth day of creation:
Sigma presents the social droves,
With him that solitary roves,
And man of all the chief;
Fair on whose face, and stately frame,
Did God impress his hallow'd name,
For ocular belief.
The last three lines refer to Christ, and can be linked to
the eighteenth psalm in two ways. The psalm, like the
seventh, is one that Smart changed substantially. The ori
ginal is a song of praise for God as David's deliverer. In
Smart's version, an additional characteristic of God is
praised. Not only is he David's "buckler in that hour of
dread," but in the figure of Christ, he also is the "Sav
iour" in whom men "embrace the bond of peace." This pro
vides a general link with the stanza, but there is a more
specific one in the birth of Christ, with which the psalm
concludes.
93
Throughout the psalm, David appears as God's faithful
worshiper, who is rewarded with His support. The final
stanza presents the greatest reward the psalmist will re
ceive:
Great things and prosperous hast thou done
In love to David— and his Son
Shall ride the royal mule;
King David thy free choice appoints,
And from his loins thy seer anoints
A man thy tribes to rule.
Christ will be born into the house of David; and his birth
will provide proof, "ocular belief," not only of the divine
existence, but also of God's covenant to reward the faith
ful .
The Omega stanza portrays the final day, and is linked
to the twenty-fourth psalm:
OMEGA! GREATEST and the BEST,
Stands sacred to the day of rest,
For gratitude and thought;
Which bless'd the world upon his pole,
And gave the universe his goal,
And clos'd th' infernal draught.
The last three lines recapitulate the whole creation.
"OMEGA," or God, has closed the "infernal draught," the
"void" and "darkness" of Genesis I: 2, and has given the
universe direction. Both these ideas can be linked to the
opening stanzas of Smart's psalm:
94
The earth is God's, with all she bears
On fertile dale or woody hill;
The compass of the world declares
His all efficient skill.
For her foundation has he laid
The flowing waters to restrain,
And all her firm consistence made
Upon the mighty main.
The "flowing waters" and "mighty main” correspond to the
"infernal draught," and God's direction appears in "His all
efficient skill" which the world now declares.
Smart also was selecting the Greek figures for their
values as letters. AFH0IEQ represents the Greek verb, "to
28
do good." It is a combination of AFH®, which means
"good," and the suffix, ISO, which means "to do." There is
one difficulty, but it is not a serious one. The usual
spelling of "good" is ArA®, but Smart was unable to repeat
a letter without repeating a psalm, so he used H instead,
which is the closest sound to A, and interchanges, with it in
28charles Parish has also suggested that the pillars
represent an anagram ("Christopher Smart's 'Pillars of the
Lord,'" MLQ, XXIV [1963], 158-163). For Parish, they are a
form of the Greek verb &yeiu), "to hallow or make sacred."
He has to go to some lengths to get this meaning from these
letters, however. "I must maintain that, in order to pro
duce his 'word,' he forgot (perhaps deliberately abandoned)
the future passive suffix -|aa , metathesized the - - and
the -71-, and finally changed the -o into the -uu of the
first person suffix."
95
some Greek dialects. Recognizing this, one can see why it
was imperative that Smart use ® in the fourth stanza. He
had altered one letter, and if he had changed another, "to
do good" would not have been recognizable.
The pillar section not only describes the seven days,
but it elaborates the universal nature of David's psalms,
and suggests that the psalms carry an inherent goodness.
In relation to the poem as a whole, it has a similar three
fold purpose. It recalls the theme of praise, and the ne
cessity for adoration, by stressing the essential goodness
of David's praise. It expands the picture of his greatness,
the demonstration of God in man that dominates the first
half of the poem. And it provides another minor demonstra
tion of God's wonders in nature, which soon will become the
poem's principal concern. Smart had touched on this idea
earlier, and as the balance shifts and it becomes the cen
tral issue, he will use David as a secondary theme with
which to counterpoint it. The two ideas, God's presence in
David and in nature, have contrasting structures. The first
goes from great to small in importance, while the other goes
in the opposite direction, until they meet in the conclusion
that celebrates both of them.
Stanzas XXXVIII and XXXIX provide a transition to the
96
next major section:
0 DAVID, scholar of the Lord'.
Such is thy science, whence reward,
And infinite degree;
0 strength, 0 sweetness, lasting ripe!
God's harp thy symbol, and thy type
The lion and the bee!
There is but One who ne'er rebell'd,
But One by passion unimpell'd,
By pleasures unintic't;
He from himself his semblance sent,
Grand object of his own content,
And saw the God in CHRIST.
Both of the stanzas are related to ideas that appear earlier
in the poem. In XXXVIII, the last three lines recall the
Christian warrior. In worship, David has the "sweetness"
of the "bee." In battle, he has the "strength" of the
"lion." Strength and sweetness were one of the contrasts
that Smart earlier used to encompass the diversity of the
world, and the Christian hero is a microcosm who embodies
the whole range of fullness that human life includes. Re
calling, stanza XV, he is "various as the year;/ Man, soul,
and angel, without peer,/ Priest, champion, sage, and boy."
In stanza XXXIX, there is a reference that goes back
to the section on David's subjects, and a reminder that
Smart retained the sense of logic that determined the
structure of the Seaton poems. There were instances of it
97
earlier, particularly in the way he followed each of David's
virtues with an historical demonstration, but here he deals
with the most important logical difficulty that must be
answered before David can be the "Best man." In stanza XVI,
he referred to David's guilt in relation to Uriah and Bath-
sheba, and followed Delany in praising David's repentance.
He again echoes Delany in minimizing David's guilt:
As to David's guilt, . . . I know no one that ever
yet set him up for more than mortal: and is there such
a thing, was there ever such a thing, in this world, as
an unsinning mortal? Our blessed Saviour, CHRIST JESUS,
only, excepted. (p. 593)
Every mortal is guilty except Jesus; and David, who "re
pented and recovered" like no other, should not be condemned
for one error in a life that became "little else than one
29
train of humiliation, and repentance before God."
Having rationalized David's moment of failure, Smart
turns to the moral laws the psalmist taught to "further
knowledge, silence vice":^
Tell them I am, JEHOVA said
To MOSES; while earth heard in dread,
And smitten to the heart,
At once above, beneath, around,
All nature, without voice or sound,
Replied, 0 Lord, THOU ART.
^Brittain, p. 300. ■^Stanza XII.
In the "Contents," the section was called an "exercise upon
the decalogue." Smart has adjusted the commandments to suit
the Sona. The change parallels the one that was noted in
his version of the psalms. Just as he objected to their
violence, he objects here to the negative quality of the
commandments, the "Thou shalt not." For Smart, the life of
God meant spiritual freedom and happiness, and its founda
tions could not be rules that restrained man. Rather, as
Smart says in stanza XLIV, God's laws include the admoni
tion, "Use all thy passions."
The commandments are part of the song of the grand
chorus. In this first stanza, Smart paralleled two verses
from the Bible, the first commandment and the verse immed
iately preceding it:
I 5m the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out
of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
31
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
In the stanza, lines 5-6 present Smart's first commandment.
All of "Nature" acknowledges that there is no other God with
the assertion, "0 Lord, THOU ART," which is the text of the
grand chorus from the Seaton poems.
31Exodus XX: 2-3.
99
The other commandments echo this first one:
Thou art— to give and to confirm,
For each his talent and his term;
All flesh thy bounties share:
Thou shalt not call thy brother fool;
The porches of the Christian school
Are meekness, peace, and pray'r.
"Thou art" is a direction not only for this stanza, but for
each of the next seven. It is the basic admonition for all
of Smart's positive commandments, and it makes each of them
a repetition of the hymn of the grand chorus. Man joins the
chorus by practicing these laws which contain the text of
its song.
This second stanza also parallels two verses from the
Bible, the second and third commandments. The statement,
give to each his due as "his talent and his term" demand,
is Smart's replacement for the prohibition, "Thou shalt not
make unto thee any graven image." The idea of worshiping
an image, or giving it unwarranted respect, leads Smart to
the conclusion that things should only be given the respect
that they deserve. In the case of a man, the respect that
he deserves depends on his ability and age.
The fourth line of the stanza is a reshaping of the
commandment, "Thou shalt not take the name of the IORD thy
God in vain." Brittain has noted the relation to Matthew
100
V: 22, "That whosoever is angry with his brother without
cause shall be in danger of the judgment" (p. 304). It also
is linked to Smart's belief that God exists in man. One
cannot call his "brother fool" without maligning the divine
presence.
From XLII to XLVIII, each stanza corresponds to one
commandment. Stanza XLII presents the fourth:
Open, and naked of offence,
Man's made of mercy, soul, and sense;
God arm'd the snail and wilk;
Be good to him that pulls thy plough;
Due food and care, due rest, allow
For her that yields thee milk.
Man's purity and goodness make him "Open, and naked of
offence," in contrast to the unclean snail of Leviticus XI:
32
30, and his brother the whelk. His comfort is in the
Lord, Whom he honors by obeying the fourth commandment,
"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." The last three
lines reflect the elaboration of the commandment in the
Bible, "the seventh day is the sabbath of the I£>RD thy God:
in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, . . .
nor thy cattle . . ."
Stanza XLIII represents the fifth commandment, "Honor
■^Brittain, p. 304.
101
thy father and thy mother":
Rise up before the hoary head,
And God's benign commandment dread,
Which says thou shalt not die:
"Not as I will, but as thou wilt,"
Pray'd He, whose conscience knew no guilt;
With Whose bless'd pattern vie.
This and the preceding one are the only two commandments
that do not have a negative character in the Bible, and the
fact that Smart allows them to retain their original mean
ings supports the view that what he objected to was basing
the life God directs on restriction. Here, he presents the
unchanged injunction to filial duty with the example of
Christ, who meekly submitted to his father's will, though
he would have preferred the "cup" of suffering to pass from
Stanza XLIV corresponds to the negative admonition,
"Thou shalt not kill"; and it forces Smart to begin altering
the biblical meanings again:
Use all thy passions!— love is thine
And joy, and jealousy divine;
Thine hope's eternal fort,
And care thy leisure to disturb,
With fear concupiscence to curb,
And rapture to transport.
33Matthew XXVI: 39.
102
i
Brittain has said that Smart's "natural delicacy does not
permit him even to mention" murder (p. 305), but an explana
tion more in keeping with the careful skill of the poem can
be found in Smart's desire to make the commandments posi
tive. All of his commandments are rooted in the basic dic
tum of Christ, "Love thy neighbour as thyself," and a corol
lary to it suggests his redaction here, "Whosoever hateth
34
his brother is a murderer." The original injunction for
bids men to hate, and Smart transforms it by suggesting
instead that they should use all their other "passions,"
which please God, and make hate impossible because they
leave no room for it.
The next stanza presents Smart's version of the sev
enth commandment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery":
Act simply, as occasion asks;
Put mellow wine in season'd casks;
Till not with ass and bull;
Remember thy baptismal bond;
Keep from commixtures foul and fond,
Nor work thy flax with wool.
The whole stanza revolves around the original prohibition.
Brittain has noted its presence in the "baptismal bond,"
"renounce . . . the carnal desires of the flesh . . ." (p.
34I John Ills 15.
103
305), but it also is woven through the other lines by a
number of complex references. Most important are the laws
of Deuteronomy XXII, particularly those that prohibit un
natural combinations that violate the purity of a species:
Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seed:
lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and
the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled.
Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together.
Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, . a s .
of woolen and linen together. (vs. 9-11)
Respectively, these prohibitions provide the bases for lines
2, 3, and 6; and they are linked to adultery because it is
another of the "commixtures foul and fond" that is forbidden
in the same chapter of the Old Testament, "If a man be found
lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall
both of them die . . ." (v.22).
Smart also has adjusted one of the biblical laws to
give it a greater meaning in his stanza. In the first line,
instead of insisting that things that do not mix should not
be put together, he echoes Christ, "put new wine in new
35
bottles . . .," and says that things that do belong to
gether should be put together. The alteration in no way
relieves the prohibition of the original, but it does change
35Matthew IX: 17.
104
it into something that is more consistent with Smart's idea
of divine goodness.
Stanzas XLVI-XLVIII present the last three command
ments :
Distribute: pay the Lord his tithe,
And make the widow's heart-strings blithe;
Resort with those that weep:
As you from all and each expect,
For all and each thy love direct,
And render as you reap.
The slander and its bearer spurn,
And propagating praise sojourn
To make thy welcome last;
Turn from old Adam to the New;
By hope futurity pursue;
Look upwards to the past.
Controul thine eye, salute success,
Honour the wiser, happier bless,
And for thy neighbour feel;
Grutch not of mammon and his leaven,
Work emulation up to heaven
By knowledge and by zeal.
"Thou shalt not steal" has become "Distribute." Rather than
take, one should give. "Thou shalt not bear false witness"
is now "The slander and its bearer spurn"; and "Thou shalt
not covet" is an injunction to be magnanimous, "Controul
thine eye, salute success." Each of the old commandments
has been replaced by a positive Christian one.
The "exercise upon the decalogue" marks the end of the
first half of the poem, in which Smart showed God's presence
105
in David. The next major section will begin the demonstra
tion of His presence in nature. Stanzas XLIX-LI provide
the transition between these two ideas:
0 DAVID, highest in the list
Of worthies, on God's ways insist,
The genuine word repeat.
Vain are the documents of men,
And vain the flourish of the pen
That keeps the fool's conceit.
Praise above all— for praise prevails;
Heap up the measure, load the scales,
And good to goodness add:
The generous soul her Saviour aids,
But peevish obloquy degrades;
The Lord is great and glad.
For ADORATION all the ranks
Of angels yield eternal thanks,
And DAVID in the midst;
With God's good poor, which last and least
In man's esteem, thou to thy feast,
0 blessed bride-groom, bidst.
Recalling stanza XII, Smart admonishes David to teach the
commandments, the "genuine word"; but says additionally
that he must inculcate praise, which is even more impor-
tant— good "above all." The basis for Smart's "exercise
upon the decalogue" was Christ's injunction concerning our
fellow men, "Love thy neighbour as thyself." Here, he
echoes the complete code of the New Testament:
The first of all the commandments is, Hear, 0
Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord:
106
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,
and with all thy strength: this is. the first command
ment .
And the second is. like, namely this, Thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other command
ment greater than these.
Praise is the "first of all the commandments," even more
important than the admonition to love thy neighbor.
Stanza LI completes the transition. Since all things
should praise the Lord, Smart returns to the universal
hierarchy that appeared in the section on David's subjects.
From the angels who "yield eternal thanks" to the poor who
are "last and least/ In man's esteem," every being praises
the Almighty. This carries Smart to the midpoint in the
universal chain, and the next thing that must be examined
is the natural world.
The next section begins the "ADORATION" stanzas which,
according to Brittain, soar "to heights unreached by any
other religious lyric in the language" (p. 306). Smart
celebrates the variety and abundance of God, the creator—
the special manifestation of the Almighty that preoccupied
him in the Seaton pieces.
36Mark XII: 29-31.
107
The first half of the "ADORATION" section is devoted to
an "exercise upon the seasons," and is remarkably complex.
Its simplest organization comes from the phrase, "for ADOR
ATION," which moves regularly from line to line in each of
the twelve stanzas. The stanzas also are divided into four
groups of three, each of which deals with one of the sea
sons. These groups alternately show God's sweetness and
strength, the basic opposites of the poem.
The first three stanzas, LII-LIV, present the spring
and God's sweetness:
For ADORATION seasons change,
And order, truth, and beauty range,
Adjust, attract, and fill:
The grass the polyanthus cheques;
And polish'd porphyry reflects,
By the descending rill.
Rich almonds colour to the prime
For ADORATION; tendrils climb,
And fruit-trees pledge their gems;
And Ivis with her gorgeous vest
Builds for her eggs her cunning nest,
And bell-flowers bow their stems.
With vinous syrup cedars spout;
From rocks pure honey gushing out,
For ADORATION springs:
All scenes of painting croud the map
Of nature; to the mermaid's pap
The scaled infant clings.
Spring is abundant with sweentess. The hummingbird builds
her "cunning nest," and the cedars of Lebanon spout "vinous
108
37
syrup." But it is still a season of promise rather than
fulfillment. It is a time of buds and blossoms that "croud
the map" with "scenes of painting." In the "Contents,"
Smart called the whole section not only an "exercise upon
the seasons," but also a demonstration of the "right use of
them"; and this accounts for the nature of the images. God
has given life, and the "right use" of the seasons is to
allow things to develop naturally, in tune with the changing
times of the year. Spring is the time of birth— the season
for "eggs" in the hummingbird's nest, and the "scaled in
fant" that clings to the "mermaid's pap."
Stanzas LV-LVII celebrate the summer, and reveal the
Almighty1s strength:
The spotted ounce and playsome cubs
Run rustling 'mongst the flow'ring shrubs,
And lizards feed the moss;
For ADORATION beasts embark,
While waves upholding halcyon's ark
No longer roar and toss.
While Israel sits beneath his fig,
With coral root and amber sprig
The wean'd advent'rer sports;
Where to the palm the jasmin cleaves,
For ADORATION 'mong the leaves
The gale his peace reports.
37Psalms CIV: 16.
Increasing days their reign exalt,
Nor in the pink and mottled vault
Th' opposing spirits tilt;
And, by the coasting reader spy'd,
The silverlings and crusions glide
For ADORATION gilt.
The "spotted ounce and playsome cubs," the "waves," the
"gale," and the "opposing spirits" of the sky are examples
of God's strength. At the moment, all of them are passive
because they are part of the "right use" of the seasons.
Sximmer is the period of youth, a time of promise like the
spring, and it offers only the first foreshadowings of God's
strength. In its calmness, the Almighty's power lies dor
mant, but one senses its pent-up strength.
Though there is a basic contrast in the seasons, they
also have a fundamental continuity. One leads naturally
into the next, and Smart captures this movement with a con
tinuing pattern of life cycle imagery that parallels the
"right use" of the seasons. Spring, the time of birth, was
represented by the "eggs" and the "scaled infant"; and the
"playsome cubs," the young David, and the "wean'd advent'—
rer" are the next stages of development, which correspond to
summer and youth.
Stanzas LVIII-LX deal with the fall, and picture God's
sweetness fully realized;
110
For ADORATION rip'ning canes
And cocoa's purest milk detains
The western pilgrim's staff;
Where rain in clasping boughs inclos'd,
And vines with oranges dispos'd,
Embow'r the social laugh.
Now labour his reward receives,
For ADORATION counts his sheaves
To peace, her bounteous prince;
The nectarine his strong tint imbibes,
And apples of ten thousand tribes,
And quick peculiar quince.
The wealthy crops of whit'ning rice,
'Mongst thyine woods and groves of spice,
For ADORATION grow;
And, marshall'd in the fenced land,
The peaches and pomegranates stand,
Where wild carnations blow.
Fall is the time of harvest, when all living things ripen
to maturity and provide rich evidence of the Lord's sweet
ness. The "rip'ning canes," "cocoa's purest milk," the
"apples of ten thousand tribes," the "quick peculiar
quince," the "wealthy crops of whit'ning rice," the "thyine
woods and groves of spice," the "peaches," "pomegranates,"
and "wild carnations" are all proof of God's abundant
sweetness that comes with the "right use" of the seasons.
In addition, the life cycle imagery maintains the ba
sic continuity. The pilgrim and the laborer represent
maturity, the next stage of development, and the one that
corresponds to fall.
Ill
The last stanzas of the group, LXI-LXIII, portray the
winter, and demonstrate the Lord's strength:
The laurels with the winter strive;
The crocus burnishes alive
Upon the snow-clad earth:
For ADORATION myrtles stay
To keep the garden from dismay,
And bless the sight from dearth.
The pheasant shows his pompous neck;
And ermine, jealous of a speck
With fear eludes offence:
The sable, with his glossy pride,
For ADORATION is descried,
Where frosts the waves condense.
The chearful holly, pensive yew,
And holy thorn, their trim renew;
The squirrel hoards his nuts:
All creatures batten o'er their stores,
And careful nature all her doors
For ADORATION shuts.
God's strength, particularly the ability of nature to en
dure, is fully realized in winter, when the rigors of the
season no longer allow it to remain dormant. The laurel
must "strive" to survive. All creatures must protect their
"stores." Nature must shut all her "doors." The fact that
even the smallest creatures are able to endure is over
whelming proof of the Almighty's strength.
In the life cycle imagery, winter is the season of
death, but that conclusion is inconsistent with Smart's
optimism. Instead, he parallels the wonder that dominated
112
the picture of winter and the natural world— the ability of
God's creatures to survive. In the life cycle, this cor
responds to the immortality of the soul, the promise of
Christ; and Smart affirms Christ's presence in the stanzas
through the "holy thorn" that is traditionally associated
with him.
The next stanza provides a transition to the second
half of the ADORATION group:
For ADORATION, DAVID'S psalms
Lift up the heart to deeds of alms;
And he, who kneels and chants,
Prevails his passions to controul,
Finds meat and med'cine to the soul,
Which for translation pants.
David is used to counterpoint the consideration of God in
nature, and a minor theme that appeared before in transi
tional passages is recalled. The power of David's songs
gives "balm for all the thorns that pierce,/ For all the
pangs that rage";— "meat and med'cine to the soul." The
stanza also prepares the way for the "exercise upon the
senses, and how to subdue them;" The man who turns to God
prevails over "his passions" which are rooted in the senses.
Stanzas LXV-LXIX are devoted to the five senses. In
order, they consider touch, sight, hearing, smell, and
taste:
113
For ADORATION, beyond match,
The scholar bullfinch aims to catch
The soft flute's iv'ry touch;
And, careless on the hazle spray,
The daring redbreast keeps at bay
The damsel's greedy clutch.
For ADORATION, in the skies,
The Lord's philosopher espies
The Dog, the Ram, and Rose;
The planets ring, Orion's sword;
Nor is his greatness less ador'd
In the vile worm that glows.
For ADORATION on the strings
The western breezes work their wings,
The captive ear to sooth.—
Harkl 'tis a voice— how still, and small—
That makes the cataracts to fall,
Or bids the sea be smooth.
For ADORATION, incense comes
From bezoar, and Arabian gums;
And from the civet's furr.
But as for pray'r, or ere it faints,
Far better is the breath of saints
Than galbanum and myrrh.
For ADORATION from the down
Of dam'sins to th' anana's crown,
God sends to tempt the taste;
And while the luscious zest invites
The sense, that in the scene delights,
Commands desire be chaste.
Smart's attitude is two-sided. On the one hand, he frankly
enjoys the pleasures of the senses, and exercises them with
an enthusiasm that recalls stanza XLIV, "Use all thy pas
sions." The sensuous richness of the "bezoar, and Arabian
gums," the "down/ Of dam'sins," and "th1 anana's crown"
114
obviously delights him. On the other hand, the passage
demonstrates "how to subdue" the senses. The last stanza
sums up the way in which this is done, "while the luscious
zest invites/ The sense, that in the scene delights,/ Com
mands desire be chaste." The senses awaken desire, but they
also provide reminders of God that subdue it. The beauty of
the bullfinch's song, of the heavens, of the Aeolian harp,
of the rich incense, and the luscious fruit all confess His
presence, and recall man's obligation to live virtuously,
and to insure that desire remain "chaste." Smart is able to
advocate the free use of the senses, and at the same time,
find a basis for morality in them.
Stanzas LXX-LXXI bring the "exercise upon the senses"
to a conclusion:
For ADORATION, all the paths
Of grace are open, all the baths
Of purity refresh;
And all the rays of glory beam
To deck the man of God's esteem,
Who triumphs o'er the flesh.
For ADORATION, in the dome
Of Christ the sparrows find an home,
And on his olives perch:
The swallow also dwells with thee,
0 man of God's humility,
Within his Saviour's CHURCH.
The man who "triumphs o'er the flesh" opens the way to God's
115
bosom. The second stanza, which paraphrases Psalms LXXXIV:
3, affirms the first. The "man of God's humility" will find
a home with the sparrow and the swallow, who dwell in God's
38
"house" ever "singing" his praises. There also is a
meaningful echo of the New Testament, though it may be for
tuitous . The Lord, who has a home in His church for the
nest of the sparrow, will certainly find a place for His
followers, because Christ has promised them, "ye are of
39
more value than many sparrows."
The next group of stanzas is the final one, a section
that Smart called "an amplification in five degrees which
is wrought up to this conclusion, That the best poet who
ever lived was thought worthy of the highest honour which
possibly can be conceived, as the Saviour of the world was
ascribed to his house, and called his son in the body."
The section brings the emotion of the "ADORATION" stanzas to
a crescendo. The enthusiasm with which they were inspired
builds to a final triumphal pitch.
The passage also is one of the most logical sections in
the poem. Smart devotes three stanzas to each of the "five
degrees," and in each group, he argues in the same
38Psalms LXXXIV: 4. 39Luke XII: 7.
116
straightforward manner. Stanzas LXXII-LXXIV deal with the
first degree, sweetness:
Sweet is the dew that falls betimes,
And drops upon the leafy limes;
Sweet Hermon's fragrant air:
Sweet is the lily's silver bell,
And Sweet the wakeful tapers smell
That watch for early pray'r.
Sweet the young nurse with love intense,
Which smiles o'er sleeping innocence;
Sweet when the lost arrive;
Sweet the musician's ardour beats.
While his vague mind's in quest of sweets,
The choicest flow'rs to hive.
Sweeter in all the Strains of love,
The language of thy turtle dove,
Pair'd to thy swelling chord;
Sweeter with ev'ry grace endu'd,
The glory of thy gratitude,
Respir'd unto the Lord.
The first two stanzas point out a variety of things that are
sweet, and the third one shows that David is sweeter. Along
with this simple logic, there are a number of complexities
that produce an extraordinary richness, and that make the
passage a summation that truly ties together the whole poem.
The two contrasting themes, God's presence in David and in
nature, achieve a balance. Smart may be asserting that
David better demonstrates these "degrees," but this can be
credited to the fact that on the most direct level the poem
is a paean in his honor. Structurally, the balance between
117
the two is more important. For each degree, Smart offers
examples that show the Almighty in both nature and David, so
that the two are set alongside one another and given equally
important places.
The contrast between sweetness and strength reappears.
The first degree, sweetness, will be followed by strength,
and David is sweeter and stronger than the natural wonders.
Each of the stanza groups also has its own distinctive
pattern of imagery. There are motifs that begin in the
first stanza which are carried through in the second and
third. Here, music runs from the "lily's silver bell" of
stanza LXXII to the "musician's ardour" and David's "swel
ling chord"; and the "wakeful tapers" are linked to the
"young nurse" who "smiles o'er sleeping innocence."
Stanzas LXXV-LXXVII present the second degree, which
establishes the sweetness-strength contrast:
Strong is the horse upon his speed;
Strong in pursuit the rapid glede,
Which makes at once his game:
Strong the tall ostrich on the ground;
Strong through the turbulent profound
Shoots xiphias to his aim.
Strong is the lion— like a coal
His eye-ball— like a bastion's mole
His chest against the foes:
Strong the gier-eagle on his sail,
Strong against tide, th' enormous whale
Emerges, as he goes.
118
But stronger still, in earth and air,
And in the sea, the man of pray'r;
And far beneath the tide;
And in the seat to faith assign'd,
Where ask is have, where seek is find,
Where knock is open wide.
David, as the "man of pray'r," is "stronger" than God's
mightiest creatures. The internal continuity of the group
is particularly exact. The horse, the ostrich, and the
swordfish are examples of God's strength through speed which
correspond to the lion, the gier-eagle, and the whale,
examples of his strength through power; and both sets of
images parallel David, "stronger still, in earth and air,/
And in the sea."
Stanzas LXXVIII-LXXX consider the third degree, beauty:
Beauteous the fleet before the gale;
Beauteous the multitudes in mail,
Rank'd arms and crested heads:
Beauteous the garden's umbrage mild,
Walk, water, meditated wild,
And all the bloomy beds.
Beauteous the moon full on the lawn;
And beauteous, when the veil's withdrawn,
The virgin to her spouse:
Beauteous the temple deck'd and fill'd,
When to the heav'n of heav'ns they build
Their heart-directed vows.
Beauteous, yea beauteous more than these,
The shepherd king upon his knees,
For his momentous trust;
With wish of infinite conceit, -
For man, beast, mute, the small and great,
119
And prostrate dust to dust.
The sweetness-strength contrast is continued within the
stanzas themselves. The "fleet before the gale," the "mul
titudes in mail,/ Rank'd arms and crested heads" are exam-
- pies of God's strength which contrast with the sweetness of
the "moon full on the lawn," the "virgin," and the worship
ers who "build" their vows to heaven. This last image and
the "multitudes in mail" recall the Christian hero, and
affirm that David is the ultimate instance of that ideal.
The next group, stanzas LXXXI-LXXXIII, presents the
fourth degree:
Precious the bounteous widow's mite;
And precious, for extreme delight,
The largess from the churl:
Precious the ruby's blushing blaze,
And alba's blest imperial rays,
And pure cerulean pearl.
Precious the penitential tear;
And precious is the sigh sincere,
Acceptable to God:
And precious are the winning flow'rs,
In gladsome Israel's feast of bow'rs,
Bound on the hallow'd sod.
More precious that diviner part
Of David, ev'n the Lord's own heart,
Great, beautiful, and new:
In all things where it was intent,
In all extrearns, in each event,
Proof— answ'ring true to true.
120
Preciousness is not a characteristic with which to show
strength, so Smart relies solely on the idea of sweetness.
The sweetness of the "ruby's blushing blaze" and the "win
ning flow'rs" is precious, just as the "widow's mite" and
40
Abigail's aid to David is.
Stanzas LXXXIV-LXXXVI bring the poem to its triumphant
conclusion:
Glorious the sun in mid career;
Glorious th' assembled fires appear;
Glorious the comet’s train:
Glorious the trumpet and alarm;
Glorious th' almighty stretch'd-out arm;
Glorious th' enraptur'd main:
Glorious the northern lights astrearn;
Glorious the song, when God's the theme;
Glorious the thunder's roar:
Glorious hosanna from the den;
Glorious the catholic amen;
Glorious the martyr's gore:
Glorious— more glorious is the crown
Of Him, that brought salvation down
By meekness, call'd thy Son;
Thou at stupendous truth believ'd,
And now the matchless deed's atchiev'd,
DETERMIN'D, DAR'D, and DONE.
The glory of the universe provides the final contrast in the
sweetness-strength pattern. The "sun," the "assembled
fires," the "comet's train," and the "trumpet and alarm" are
40Mark XII: 43, I Samuel XXV: 18.
121
examples of the Lord's strength, and they are carried over
to the second stanza in the "northern lights astream" and
the "thunder's roar."
The crescendo effect of the passage already has been
noted, but it is on these last stanzas that it really de
pends. Two things contribute to it. First, the pace of
stanzas LXXXIV and LXXXV is accelerated. Smart manages this
by altering them in a special way. In the past, he included
two, or possibly three thoughts in each stanza, and estab
lished a sense of rhythm. In six lines, there were two or
three separate ideas. In stanzas LXXXIV and LXXXV, each
line contains a complete thought and has a full stop at the
end; and its separateness is accentuated by the word "Glor
ious" with which it begins. This creates a feeling of speed
because it packs so many more separate thoughts into the
short space of a single stanza. Additionally, it gives one
a sense of the abundance that Smart particularly wanted to
stress in praising God as the creator, and this richness
also contributes to the crescendo effect. After the slower
pace of the other stanzas, it is as if Smart is simply
glancing around him, and everything his eyes light on—
everything in the universe— is glorious.
The second thing that makes for the crescendo effect
122
is related to Smart's statement that the passage is "An
amplification in five degrees." Each of the degrees pro
vides a higher proof of David's greatness, so that in con
tent as well as form, one feels that the stanzas are build
ing upward. David is great for his singing, the "language"
of his "turtle dove"; for his faith "in earth and air,/ And
in the sea," and "in the seat to faith assign'd"; for the
"momentous trust" he undertook as "minister of praise at
41
large"; for his "heart" which was the "Lord's own"; and
most important for the fact that Christ later was born into
his house, and was called his "Son."
Along with providing this crown to the "amplification"
of David's greatness, the last stanza also sums up the other
theme, the wonder of the creation, and allows Smart an
exultant cry of personal triumph. The "matchless" deed is
the final great complexity of the poem, and it must be
recognized that it is achieved at three levels. For David,
it is the birth of Christ; for God, the creation; and for
Smart himself, the completion of the Song. which he must
have felt would insure for him the office he claimed in
Jubilate Agno. "For by the grace of God I am the Reviver of
41Acts XIII: 22.
123
ADORATION amongst ENGLISH-MEN" (B2 332).
The Sona is Smart's one great polished poem. Nothing
else that he wrote combines all the elements that contribute
to its perfection. Even Jubilate Aono. which is inspired
with the same enthusiasm, falls short because it is incom
plete .
In the broader view, however, the uniqueness of the
Song has been overstressed. There are more things that link
it to Smart's other religious poems than there are things
that set it apart. Intellectually, the idea of praise, the
importance of David, and the division between man and nature
in confessing God's presence all had been developed in the
Seaton poems. There can be no doubt that qualitatively the
Song is unique, but to understand it properly, we must also
recognize that it represents no great shift in Smart's
thought, but the natural step in a pattern of intellectual
development that had begun at least a dozen years before.
CHAPTER III
JUBILATE AGNO
The Sona to David is Smart's most polished poem, but
for the scholar, Jubilate Agno is even more interesting. It
is a morass of esoteric references, disconnected sentences,
and apparently fantastic ideas that cry for explanation. In
1947, Northrop Frye said that it was no more a "work of art"
than a "shattered stained-glass window" that survived in
"eloquently pathetic" fragments.^" Since then, W. H. Bond
has pointed out the structure of the poem, which made it
"somewhat less mad and considerably more revealing," but it
2
remains "one of the great oddities of English poetry."
Smart was imprisoned in 1756, and he spent the next
eight years in various asylums. In part, Jubilate Agno is
^-Fearful Symmetryr A Study of William Blake (Princeton,
1947), pp. 176-177.
^Bond, p. 11.
124
125
3
the "spiritual diary" of his confinement. Bond has shown
that Smart wrote the last third of the poem at the rate of
one or two lines per day (pp. 212, 143), and Arthur Sherbo
has suggested that parts of the earlier sections were writ
ten in a similar fashion, at the rate of three lines per
4
day. Sherbo has gone so far as to maintain that the poem
is "a chronological record of Smart's confinement from the
day he entered the asylum to the day he was released" (p.
205) .
Much of the appeal of Jubilate Agno undoubtedly comes
from the autobiographical glimpses that are scattered
throughout it. Smart inspires our sympathy and compassion.
We learn of the horrors that he endured in the asylum, "they
work me with their harping-irons" (B^ 124); and we admire
the strength that enabled him to keep his spirits up. He
still could "bless God" for "the light of the Sun" that he
was "allowed" (B^ 147), and he prayed for merciful treatment
of the other inmates, his "brethren and sisters in these
houses" (B^ 123).
■^Stead, p. 17.
4"The Dating and Order of the Fragments of Jubilate
Agno," Harvard Library Bulletin. X (1956), 201-207.
126
We also get an impression of the strain put on him by
failing health and the fact that he was unable to fulfill
his familial obligations. He asks the Lord to give his
children "the food" that he "cannot earn for them" (B^ 76);
and he makes over his "inheritance" to his "mother" though
he is "called a fool" for doing it (B^ 46-52). "Catarrhs
and Spitting blood" (C 68) plague him, and he frets over
"old coughs and asthmas" (C 69). "The Lord Jesus strengthen
my whole body," he prays (C 71).
Smart even presents his version of the eccentric be-
5
havior which, according to Samuel Johnson, led to his
confinement:
For I blessed God in St James's Park till I routed
all the company.
For the officers of the peace are at variance with
me, and the watchman smites me with his staff.
(B1 89-90)
Smart proudly recounts one of his bouts of public prayer.
Worship in the streets was a good thing (C 62-63), and he
would turn the other cheek until men realized it:
^James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson. L. L._ D.
(London, 1799), I, 459.
127
For they lay wagers touching my life.— God be
gracious to the winners.
{B1 92)
Rather than strike back, Smart would pray for the onlookers,
no matter how misguided they were.
Jubilate Agno is not just a "diary," however. The
autobiographical passages give it an immediate appeal, but
there are other, finer things in it which demand that we
treat it as poetry, rather than as a "chronological record."
We are just beginning to recognize its unity, but the more
the poem is studied, the more it proves to be a careful,
thoughtfully constructed work of art.
W. H. Bond uncovered the "antiphonal or responsive
character" of Jubilate Agno (p. 20). Its first editor had
g
described it as "chaotic," but Bond noted Smart's friend
ship with Bishop Robert Lowth, who had studied the Bible as
7
poetry, and he concluded that Smart was trying to "adapt
to English verse some of the principles of Hebrew verse"
(p. 20). Specifically, Bond recognized that Smart had based
6Stead, p. 48.
7Pe sacra poesi Hebraeorum (London, 1753). References
from translation, Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of. the
Hebrews. trans. G. Gregory (Andover, Mass., 1829).
128
Jubilate Aano on Lowth’s assertion that Hebrew poetry often
was written so that "One of the choirs sung a single verse
to the other, while the other constantly added a verse in
Q
some respect correspondent to the former." In Jubilate
Aano- the office of each line can be determined from its
first word. All of the assertions begin with "Let," all
of the responses with "For."
Bond divided the manuscript into five fragments which
he called A, B^, Bg, C, and D. Fragment A, which occupies
four pages of a double folio that Smart numbered "1," con-
9
tains only "Let" verses, of which there are 113. Fragment
B^ has 295 lines of both "Let" and "For" verses, and was
numbered "3" by Smart (p. 39). Two folios numbered "4" and
"5" comprise fragment B2 , and it has 475 lines of "For"
verses (p. 91). Fragment C is made up of two unnumbered
single leaves, one of which has 162 "Let" verses, and the
other 162 "For" verses (p. 121). Fragment D fills two
folios, numbered "10" and "11," and has 237 lines of "Let"
verses (p. 143). In all, there are 807 "Let" verses and
932 "For" verses, and 457 instances in which Bond suggests
they correspond.
®Bond, p. 20. ^Bond, p. 29.
129
Though Bond's edition has done more to help us under
stand Jubilate Aano than any other piece of scholarship, in
a certain sense it has hindered subsequent study. By
pointing out the relationship between the "Let" and "For"
verses, it has drawn our attention away from the continuity
within the sections themselves. But as Bond points out,
the correspondences between the two sections are "only
occasional and rather tenuous" in all of the lines except
the first 154 of fragment B^ (p. 67, n. 2); and even then,
the link is usually an image or motif, and not one that
ties the "Let" and "For" verses together in thought. The
result is that one finds little continuity in the work, and
accepts an understanding of what Smart was attempting
structurally in place of an understanding of its meaning.
Jubilate Aano is incomplete, and always will have
loose ends that cannot be explained. Some of its complex
ities undoubtedly are buried forever with Smart. The bulk
of it can be understood, however, particularly if Smart's
method is pursued a little further. We soon find that the
poem is closely linked to the ideas that underlie the
Seaton pieces and the Song to David.
The theme of praise lies at the center of Jubilate Agno.
Like Smart's other religious poems, it is an attempt to
130
confess God's presence, and report His praise. The "Let"
verses report God's praise. The "For" verses confess His
presence. A pair of them says, "Let God's creatures wor
ship Him, "For," in the sense of because, His existence is
demonstrated by the following example. This is a simpli
fication, particularly in the "For" sections, but it does
accurately describe the way in which the antiphonal verses
are intended to work.
It also suggests one of the principal weaknesses in
Smart's plan. Nearly the whole meaning of the "Let" sec
tions is summed up in the first three lines:
1. Rejoice in God, O ye Tongues; give the glory to
the Lord, and the Lamb.
Nations, and languages, and every Creature, in which
is the breath of Life.
Let man and beast appear before him, and magnify his
name together.
(A 1-3)
The other "Let" verses provide examples of "man and beast,"
or man and some other natural object, magnifying the Lord's
name, but they rarely say anything else. As worship, the
naming of God's multitudes may be praiseworthy, but as
poetry it is repetitious. Consequently, the "Let" verses
are not nearly as interesting, or as revealing, as the "For"
verses.
Stead sought out hundreds of the obscure references in
the "Let" sections, and proved that "many of the more fan
tastic statements in Jubilate Aano were not the fabrications
of a lunatic but reflected wide reading and commonly accept
ed 'fact.'"10 Still, many of the natural objects in the
"Let" verses remain unidentified; and more important, the
significance of many that have been identified remains un
clear. W. Moelwyn Merchant has suggested that there are
"patterns of allusion, association, and reference, which
depend on a wealth of learning, linguistic and traditional"
that would give many of these things meaning if they were
known. He adds that as a beginning, someone should "ex
amine the meanings of all the Hebrew proper names, substi
tuting the resulting expanded phrases for the single words
in the verses" (p. 26). A preliminary attempt at this in
the first 200 "Let" verses of fragment proved unreward
ing, however. The important fact to be gained from this is
that the study of the "Let" verses is a linguistics problem
that will demand the concentration of a specialist. In
^®Bond, p. 25.
llnPatterns of Reference in Smart's Jubilate Agno."
Harvard Library Bulletin. XIV (1960), 26.
132
content, they are relatively simple, providing repeated
examples of man and the natural multitudes worshiping God.
In this sense, their relationship to the pattern of thought
that runs throughout Smart's religious poems can be summed
up by noting that they are repetitions of a single important
idea— the admonition to praise.
The principal difficulty in the "For" verses is their
apparent lack of order, but much of the problem can be
cleared up by looking into Lowth's book for more clues to
Smart's method. Albert Kuhn has noted that Smart was at-
12
tempting to write what Lowth called "prophetic poetry."
This type of verse, which was "more ornamented, more splen-
13
did, and more florid than any other," best fulfilled the
"first and peculiar office of poetry, on the one hand to
commend to the Almighty the prayers and thanksgivings of
his creatures, and to celebrate his praises;— and on the
other, to display to mankind the mysteries of the divine
will, and the prediction of future events . . ." (p. 27).
By nature, prophetic poetry demanded a "dark, disguised,
^"Christopher Smart: The Poet as Patriot of the
Lord," ELH. XXX (1963), 132.
l^Lowth, p. 170.
133
and intricate manner" (p. 92). "Naturally free, and of too
ardent a spirit to be confined by rule," it was "usually
guided by the nature of the subject only, and the impulse
of divine inspiration" (p. 170).
This description gave Smart a free hand, and from other
hints in Lowth's book, he constructed the form of Jubilate
Aano. Most important was the necessity to violate the
poetic standards of the eighteenth century. In intention,
Jubilate Aano was a new kind of poetry, or a kind that re
turned to the pristine spirituality of the Hebrews, and it
needed a form that reflected its uniqueness. Along with
the antiphonal technique, the long line and rigid sentence
units had roots in the Hebraic tradition. The length of
the line in a Hebrew poem was consistent, but from poem to
poem, it might vary from the "shortest consisting of six or
seven syllables" to the "longest extending to about twice
14
that number." In addition, there was "a certain confor
mation of the sentences, the nature of which is, that a
complete sense is almost equally infused into every compo
nent part, and that every member constitutes an entire
verse" (p. 34).
l^Lowth, p. 33.
134
Even more important was the influence that Lowth's
ideas had on the continuity of the poem. Prophetic poetry
"possesses all that genuine enthusiasm, which is the nat
ural attendant on inspiration" (p. 170). This enthusiasm
exhibits "the true and express image of a mind violently
agitated . . . the secret avenues, the interior recesses of
the soul are thrown open; . . . the inmost conceptions are
displayed rushing together in one turbid stream, without
order or connexion" (p. 38); and these passions express
themselves "by employing new and extraordinary forms" (p.
113). Smart was trying to create this feeling of "hasty
15
confusion"; and ideas appear to fall from his mind in a
"turbid stream," catching "(without search or study) what
ever is impetuous, vivid, or energetic" (p. 113).
Smart's attempt to portray the passions had its own
continuity. He tried to capture the feeling of thought and
emotion in action by an associational technique. From line
to line, one idea suggests another, but the suggestion is
rarely logical. Instead, it approximates the way in which
the mind jumps capriciously from thought to thought.
The opening lines of fragment demonstrate one way
^Lowth, p. 113.
135
in which this technique works:
3. For I am not without authority in my jeopardy,
which I derive inevitably from the glory of the
name of the Lord.
For I bless God whose name is Jealous— and there
is a zeal to deliver us from everlasting burn
ings .
For my existimation is good even amongst the slan
derers and my memory shall arise for a sweet
savour unto the Lord.
For I bless the PRINCE of PEACE and pray that all
the guns may be nail'd up, save such as are for
the rejoicing days.
For I have abstained from the blood of the grape
and that even at the Lord's table.
(Bx 1-5)
Some element from the preceding line suggests each of the
last four verses. The suggestion for line 2 is the "glory
of the name of the Lord" from line 1. Line 3 is related to
the "zeal to deliver us from everlasting burnings." This
brings to Smart's mind the idea of judgment, and then sal
vation; and he asserts that his "existimation," or reputa-
16
tion, "is good even amongst the slanderers." Line 4 is
suggested by the consideration of why his "existimation" is
good. It is good because he blesses "the PRINCE of PEACE"
and prays "that all the guns may be nail'd up." Line 5
shows Smart's fascination with punning, a device that is
^Bond, p. 41, n. 1.
136
used throughout Jubilate Agno. On the simplest level, Smart
asserts that he has abstained from wine, possibly from
communion as an act of self punishment until he is purified.
On the associational level, the line is linked to the "guns"
of line 4. Smart has prayed that they will be "nail'd up"
because they are instruments of bloodshed, and he affirms
his own righteousness by asserting that he refuses to take
even the "blood of the grape."
In the above passage, a separate element from each
verse suggested the next one. Smart also employs the as
sociational technique by loosely grouping a number of verses
around a single idea:
For I pray for CHICHESTER to give the glory to God,
and to keep the adversary at bay.
For I am making to the shore day by day, the Lord
Jesus take me.
For I bless the Lord JESUS upon RAMSGATE PIER— the
Lord forward the building of harbours.
For I bless the Lord JESUS for his very seed, which
is in my body.
For I pray for R and his family, I pray for Mr
Becher, and I bean for the Lord JESUS.
For I pray to God for Nore, for the Trinity house,
for all light-houses, beacons and buoys.
For I bless God that I am not in a dungeon, but am
allowed the light of the Sun.
(Bx 141-147)
With the exception of line 144, lines 142-146 revolve around
the idea of the voyage; and lines 141 and 147 show how Smart
137
moves into and away from the idea. In line 141, "to keep
the adversary at bay" refers to the devil, and is related to
line 140; but the word, "bay," also provides a pun that
suggests the voyage. This opens the way for Smart's asser
tion that he is "making to the shore day by day." Line 143
elaborates the spiritual harbor in terms of a blessing for
real harbors. Line 144 is not linked to the idea of the
voyage. In a passage like this, where a number of lines
are grouped around a single thought, all of the lines need
not develop the one idea. Instead, line 144 is related to
the lines on each side of it by the phrase, "the Lord
JESUS." Line 145 requires an emendation, a dangerous prac
tice, but one that seems justified here. As Bond notes, the
N. E. D . does not record the use of "bean" as a verb (p. 65,
n. 2); and the replacement of -n- for -m- is an easy error.
Changing "bean" to "beam" fits perfectly into the passage,
particularly in relation to line 146; and it also is con
sistent with Smart's idea of himself as a spiritual light
who could guide others to the heavenly harbor. Line 146
carries on the idea of beacons, and has the same relation
ship to line 145 that 143 has to 142. In both cases, the
first line associates Smart with a particular motif from
the voyage, and the second carries it through in an actual
138
contemporary structure. Line 147 allows Smart to move away
from the voyage idea, but it retains an associational con
tinuity. The idea of beacons and lighthouses suggests the
idea of light, and Smart blesses the "light of the Sun"
that he still is able to enjoy in his imprisonment.
Smart also employs the associational technique by
juxtaposing verses that have no apparent line to line re
lationship, but that are linked to one another because they
all are related to some single principle. Often, these
passages are more difficult to recognize because they depend
on a concept that cannot be grasped until we understand
Smart's system of universal order:
For I pray to be accepted as a dog without offence,
which is best of all.
For I wish to God and desire towards the most High,
which is my policy.
For the tides are the life of God in the ocean, and
he sends his angel to trouble the great DEEP.
For he hath fixed the earth upon arches & pillars,
and the flames of hell flow under it.
For the grosser the particles the nearer to the sink,
& the nearer to purity, the quicker the gravita
tion .
(Bx 155-159)
Continuity is central to Smart's idea of order. Principles
that are true on one level hold true on all levels. One of
them is that "Attraction is the earning of parts" (B^ 165),
with "earning" here an eighteenth-century variant of
139
17
"yearning." On the human level, this is repeated in the
first two lines. Smart desires "toward the most High," and
prays to be "accepted as a dog" because it represents the
attitude of humility with which one should address the Lord.
As Smart says in fragment A, "the life of the Lord is in
Humiliation" (A 51). This yearning on the personal level
is paralleled in the ocean by the "tides." Their pull is
another manifestation of the same attraction, or yearning,
working in a different realm. Lines 158-159 broaden the
concept to the whole universe. God has fixed the earth with
heaven above, and hell below; and the speed with which
things are drawn, or attracted, to heaven depends on their
degree of purity.
The best approach to the meaning of Jubilate Agno.
however, is through its basic patterns of thought. They are
blurred to some degree because the poem is a fragment, but
they still can be outlined. Much of the difficulty in
studying them is overcome if we approach the poem with the
recognition that its apparent confusion frequently is in
tentional, and not the result of Smart's having left it
unfinished.
17Bond, p. 69, n. 1.
140
Smart wanted to give the impression of "hasty confu
sion" that Lowth had said was characteristic of sublime
poetry (p. 113), but he also had definite ideas to present.
In order that they might come across, he wove together a
structure in which these ideas are continually recalled and
illuminated. The poem is an intricate maze of cross refer
ences that give the impression of disorder, but that can be
reduced to a set of fundamental ideas.
Nearly all the "For" verses are concerned with one of
three subjects— Smart himself, his system of universal
order, or prophecy. To a substantial degree, they repeat
the way in which Smart demonstrated God's presence in the
other poems. He still maintains the division between man
and the natural world:
For the Argument A PRIORI is GOD in every man's
CONSCIENCE.
For the Argument A POSTERIORI is God before every
man1s eyes.
(B2 359-360)
But there is new material too. Smart was to be the example
for the demonstration of God in man, and he could not treat
himself in the manner in which he treated David. We have
already noted the autobiographical elements in the poems.
They are interwoven with Smart's image of himself as a
141
Christian warrior. What emerges is a touching picture of a
very human man trying to live up to a saintly ideal, to
which he truly believed that he had been called.
Additionally, there is the subject of prophecy, which
does not appear at all in the other poems. It is closely
related to Smart's vision of himself. A man of his devo
tion would attempt prophecy only with the special blessing
that he felt God had given him. Lowth had said "the first
and peculiar office of poetry" was to "commend to the Al
mighty the prayers and thanksgivings of his creatures, and
to celebrate his praises"; "to display to mankind the mys
teries of the divine will" 7 and to display "the predictions
of future events, the best and noblest of all employments"
(p. 27). As early as the first Seaton piece, Smart had
tried to fulfill the first two parts of the charge, but it
was only in Jubilate Aano that lie also undertook the third.
Albert Kuhn has examined Smart's role in the poem and
concluded that he "sees himself as a new Davidic patriot of
the Lord, descended from great warriors and martyrs" (p.
122). It was this assurance that led Smart to attempt
prophecy. God had singled him out:
For I am ennobled by my ascent and the Lord haith
raised me above my Peers.
(BX 86)
142
Smart had been "raised," and the Lord blessed him in the
role of Christian warrior:
For the word of God is a sword on my side— no
matter what other weapon a stick or a straw.
For I have adventured myself in the name of the
Lord, and he hath mark'd me for his own.
(Bx 20-21)
For I have the blessing of God in the three
POINTS of manhood, of the pen, of the sword
& of chivalry.
(Bx 129)
His special mission was in the use of the "pen." He was
the "scribe-evangelist" who would "defend the philosophy of
the scripture against vain deceit":
For I am the Lord's News-Writer— the scribe-evan
gelist— Widow Mitchel, Gun & Grange bless the
Lord Jesus.
(B2 328)
For I am inquisitive in the Lord, and defend the
philosophy of the scripture against vain deceit.
(Bx 130)
For the blessing of God hath been on my epistles,
which I have written for the benefit of others.
(Bx 125)
For if Pharaoh had known Joseph, he would have
blessed God & me for the illumination of the
people.
The "illumination of the people" was a job in which
others also were engaged, however. As the "Lord's News-
Writer," Smart took a proprietary interest in them:
For I bless God for the Postmaster general & all
conveyancers of letters under his care especi
ally Allen & Shelvock.
(Bx 22)
For I pray God for the professors of the University
of Cambridge to attend & to amend.
(Bx 69)
Smart blessed the "Postmaster general & all conveyancers of
letters" because they were responsible for the distribution
of communication. Perhaps they had carried some of Smart's
own "epistles," "written for the benefit of others." He
was less satisfied with the way in which the "professors"
contributed to the general illumination. Earlier, he had
complained that they were "oppressors of the mind" who
18
studied "downward on the ground." As Smart said in frag
ment D, he would refer them "to the Bible for their moral
ity" (D 190).
l®"On an Eagle Confin'd in a College Court," 11. 36-37.
144
Part of Smart's belief that he had been specially
chosen depended on an elaborate pattern of relationships
that linked him to heroes and martyrs from the past. At the
19
top of it stood Abraham, the "father of the faithful,"
from whom the English and the Romans derived:
For the ENGLISH are the seed of Abraham and work up
to him by Joab, David, and Naphtali. God be gra
cious to us this day. General Fast March 14^
1760.
For the Romans and the English are one people the
children of the brave man who died at the altar
praying for his posterity, whose death was the
type of our Saviour 1s.
(B2 433-434)
For I give God the glory that I am a son of ABRAHAM
a PRINCE of the house of my fathers.
(B-l 73)
Between Abraham and Smart, there are a number of links, the
most important of whom is Joab, the "brave man who died at
the altar praying for his posterity." He is the "former
captain of David's army, the slayer of Absalom, who himself
20
was slaxn at the altar by Benaiah":
19The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, ed. George
A. Buttrick (New York, 1962), I, 20.
^9Kuhn, p. 125.
For Abiah is the father of Joab and Joab of all
Romans and English Men.
(B-l 62)
For the English are the children of Joab, Captain
of the host of Israel, who was the greatest man
in the worId to GIVE and to ATCHIEVE.
(B2 464)
Joab is the "father" of the English. Smart probably chose
him rather than David because he believed that Christ was
21
descended from David; and it would have been presumptuous
to relate the English so directly to the divine.
The English were the chosen people, however. They were
the "head" of Europe that would lead the reformation that
Smart envisioned (C 102); and he had a special relationship
to them that justified his leading them;
\
For I am descended from the steward of the island
blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus king of
England.
(Bx 137)
The "steward of the island" was a composite figure that
included Thomas Becket,. who had been both the secular and
religious overseer of England; Agricola, the Roman
^ A Sona to David, stanza LXXXVI.
146
governor-general; and at one time, Saint George. Smart
acknowledged that both Becket and Agricola were his
"father";
For I am redoubted, and redoubtable in the Lord,
as is THOMAS BECKET my father.
134)
Let Gaius rejoice with the Water-Tortoise— Paul
& Tychicus were in England with Agricola my
father.
(Bx 231)
Saint George, the patron saint of the island, had been
identified with Agricola;
For (.....) Agricola (......) is TTlu) yos (which is
by the blessing of God SAINT GEORGE).
(Bx 54)
For (Agricola is SAINT GEORGE, but his son) CHRIS
TOPHER must slay the Dragon with a PHEON's head.
(Bx 58)
The parentheses indicate Smart's deletions, however, so he
evidently decided not to pursue this relationship.
Three other heroes were also members of the house of
Abraham:
For I bless God that I am of the same seed as Ehud,
Mutius Scaevola, and Colonel Draper.
147
(B1 19)
Ehud was the slayer of the king of the Moabites, a tribe
that was the chief enemy of the chosen people. Mutius
Scaevola, a Roman youth whose bravery saved the city when
it was besieged by Lars Porsena, was another savior of his
people. Colonel Draper was a contemporary Englishman whom
Smart later addressed as a "CHRISTIAN HERO," one "that
prefers a higher claim/ To God's applause, his country's
and his own;/ Than those, who, tho' the mirrour of their
days,/Nor knew the Prince of Worth, nor principle of
„22
praise.
All these heroes have certain things in common— brav
ery, valor, dedication to God, and to their people or na
tion. Smart was serious in his commitment to the same role:
For I am ready for the trumpet & alarm to fight,
to die & to rise again.
(B1 38)
For I am ready to die for his sake— who lay down
his ,life for all mankind.
{B1 98)
22"ode to General Draper," 11. 37-42.
148
Nevertheless, he was unable to keep the picture of himself
within the narrow limits of this ideal. The belief that he
had been selected by God was only one of the things with
which Smart was preoccupied, and he was too alive and too
human to turn away from other more mundane thoughts:
For I have a greater compass both of mirth and
melancholy than another.
132)
One indication that Smart retained his humanness is the
fact that he cannot help laughing at himself in his saintly
role:
For the praise of God can give to a mute fish the
notes of a nightingale.
For I have seen the White Raven & Thomas Hall of
Willingham & am myself a greater curiosity than
both.
(Bi 24-25)
White ravens and Thomas Hall, the gigantic boy "who at the
2
age of 38 months was four feet tall and had a deep voice,"
were famous curiosities, but Smart himself, the "mute fish"
of the preceding verse, is a greater one. The same idea is
expressed beautifully in another passage, ". . . 1 sing a
^Bond, p. 4 4} n. 2 .
149
psalm of my own composing./ For there is a note added to
the scale, which the Lord hath made fuller, stronger & more
glorious" (Bj 32-33). Smart was sincere in crediting his
poetic power to God, but he still was able to see that there
was something slightly ludicrous in the idea of the Almighty
having chosen him.
Beneath Smart's assurance, there were deep, human
feelings of doubt. Cast out of the world as a madman, he
often felt melancholy and persecuted. Echoing the book of
24
Job, he lamented his predicament:
For my brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook,
and as the stream of brooks that pass away.
(Bx 74)
For man is born to trouble in the body, as the
sparks fly upward in the spirit.
(B2 431)
Men had treated him "deceitfully," and Smart was cut off
and alone:
For they have separated me and my bosom, whereas
the right comes by setting us together.
(Bx 59)
24vi: 15, V: 7.
150
For they pass by me in their tour, and the good
Samaritan is not yet come.
L.
(Bi 63)
Even the spiritual reformation he had undergone was not
always sufficient compensation for the loss of his family
and companions. Unlike the prodigal son, he had no one
25
left to rejoice in his change:
For I am come home again, but there is nobody to
kill the calf or to pay the musick.
(Bjl 15)
Smart felt he knew why men had turned against him. It
was "envy," that "killeth & preyeth upon that which God has
given to aspire and bear fruit" (A 70):
For I look up to heaven which is my prospect to
escape envy by surmounting it.
(B1 26)
For I preach the very GOSPEL of CHRIST without
comment & with this weapon shall I slay envy.
(Bx 9)
This also may explain one of the verses that initially
^Luke XV: 11-32. Cf. Smart's "An Epistle to John
Sherratt, Esq." Sherratt had effected Smart's release from
confinement in 1763. "'Tis you that have in my behalf,/
Produc'd the robe and kill'd the calf (11. 33-34)."
151
appears to be unrelated to any other:
For Silly fellow! Silly fellow! is against me and
belongeth neither to me nor my family.
(B-l 60)
Smart may have been echoing Job V: 2, which reveals that the
"silly" man is envious.
Fortunately, Smart had strength enough to endure. He
found solace in the Lord, Whom he knew would never desert
him:
For being desert-ed is to have desert in the sight
of God and intitles one to the Lord's merit.
(B2 333)
For the poor gentleman is the first object of the
Lord's charity & he is the most pitied who hath
lost the most.
For I am in twelve HARDSHIPS, but he that was born
of a virgin shall deliver me out of all.
(Bl 138-139)
Nevertheless, this "poor gentleman" is a very different
figure from the “scribe-evangelist" who confidently asserted
that he had been raised above his peers. This is a much
more human Smart, and one from whom we can get a real im
pression of the pain and anguish that he endured in his
incarceration.
152
God remained his principal source of hope. Smart con
stantly affirmed his faith in the ultimate salvation with
which the Lord would reward him:
For the hour of my felicity, like the womb of
Sarah, shall come at the latter end.
(Bx 16)
For I have translated in the charity, which makes
things better & I shall be translated myself at
the last.
(Bx 11)
For the banish'd of the Lord shall come about
again, for so he hath prepared for them.
(Bx 39)
For he that scorneth the scorner hath condescended
to my low estate.
(Bj^ 61)
For man is between the pinchers while his soul is
shaping and purifying.
(B2 432)
In the meantime, Smart had to continue living. A number of
ideas that revolved in his mind made life possible. From
Christ, he drew comforting examples that taught him to ac
cept his burden:
For I am under the same accusation with my Saviour—
for they said, he is beside himself.
(B-l 151)
For the Lord reviled not at all in hardship and
temptation unutterable.
(Bx 290)
There also was his "Angel" that helped to sustain him:
For my Angel is always ready at a pinch to help
me out and to keep me up.
57)
He identified his angel as the personification, "GRATITUDE,"
that previously had appeared in the Seaton poems, "For the
angel GRATITUDE is my wife" (B2 324). As "GRATITUDE," she
was associated with praise, or song; and she must have ful
filled the same function as the "bright angel" of David's
verse who gave "balm for all the thorns that pierce,/ For
26
all the pangs that rage."
In spite of his feelings of persecution, Smart never
was bitter toward his enemies. "To conquer malice" was
"nobler, than to slay the lion" (A 58), and the malice of
his enemies could be excused as foolishness and vanity:
2^A Song to David, stanza XVII.
154
For the bite of an Adder is cured by its greese &
the malice of my enemies by their stupidity.
(Bx 118)
For Solomon said THOU FOOL in malice from his own
vanity.
(Bx 289)27
There also was comfort in the recognition that the temporal
rewards which he had been denied were fleeting:
Let Nebuchadnezzar bless with the Grashopper—
the pomp and vanities of the world are as the
herb of the field, but the glory of the Lord
increaseth for ever.
(A 69)
Let Agur bless with the Cockatrice— The consola
tion of the world is deceitful, and temporal
honour the crown of him that creepeth.
(A 73)
For a CHARACTER is the votes of the Worldlings,
but the seal is of Almighty GOD alone.
(B2 363)
Smart believed that he had rejected the worthless "pomp and
vanities of the world" in order to "quit all for the sake of
^Smart also slights Solomon in B^ 287. He evidently
credited Ecclesiastes to Solomon and disliked its negative
attitude toward the world.
155
the Lord":
For tis no more a merit to provide for oneself,
but to quit all for the sake of the Lord.
(Bx 81)
For there is silver in my mines and I bless God
that it is rather there than in my coffers.
(B-l 88)
For stuff'd guts make no musick; strain them strong
and you shall have sweet melody.
(B2 307)
On one level, the life he had chosen was the heroic
one as "scribe-evangelist," blessed in the "POINTS of man
hood." More realistically, Smart recognized that it was a
life of submission. Echoing Job XV: 33, he asserted that
"before honour is humility" (A 54); and it is "Humiliation,"
the "life of the Lord" (A 51), that he accepted for himself:
For tall and stately are against me, but humiliation
on humiliation is on my side.
{B1 112)
Part of the life of humility was a speoial identifica
tion with creatures that were small and humble. Smart ack
nowledges his own diminutive size as an indication of the
grace that he ultimately will receive:
156
For I am a little fellow, which is intitled to the
great mess by the benevolence of God my father.
(Bx 45)
He also likens himself to a frog, and expresses a special
affection for the toad, a "good creature of God" (A 29):
For I am like a frog in the brambles, but the Lord
hath put his whole armour upon me.
(Bx 95)
For a Toad hath by means of his eye the most beauti
ful prospects of any other animal to make him
amends for his distance from his Creator in Glory.
(B2 413)
For a toad enjoys a finer prospect than another
creature to compensate his lack.
Tho' toad I am the object of man's hate
Yet better am I than a reprobate. who has the
worst of prospects.
(B2 580-582)
This identification with the small and humble also may ex
plain one of the apparently more fantastic ideas in the
poem. When Smart advocates worshiping naked in the rain,
"to worship naked in the Rain is the bravest thing for the
refreshing & purifying the body" (Bg 384), he wants to fol
low the example of the worm, a perfect symbol of humility:
For I rejoice like a worm in the rain in him that
cherishes and from him that tramples.
157
(Bx 37)
Christopher Devlin has suggested that Smart also took
vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity (pp. 113-114, 120-
121). He rejected the coffin, cradle, and purse, the three
"shapes" that the devil works "to afflict" the minds of men,
as symbols of disobedience, lechery, and greed:
For the Devil can work coals into shapes to afflict
the minds of those that will not pray.
For the coffin and the cradle and the purse are all
against a man.
For the coffin is for the dead and death came by
disobedience.
For the cradle is for weakness and the child of man
was originally strong from ye womb.
For the purse is for money and money is dead matter
with the stamp of human vanity.
For the adversary frequently sends these particular
images out of the fire to those whom they concern.
For the coffin is for me because I have nothing to
do with it.
For the cradle is for me because the old Dragon
attacked me in it & I overcame in Christ.
For the purse is for me because I have neither money
nor human friends.
275-283)
The main difficulty is in Smart's assertion that the coffin,
cradle, and purse are "for" him. He means that they no
longer are "shapes" of the devil which would set them
against him, as in line 276. Because he has rejected them
while they were "false and faint images," they have regained
their real form as "works of Almighty God"(B2 308); and
158
therefore, they are "for" Smart.
Smart was particularly earnest about chastity. "Beau
ty" had "wings," but "chastity" was "the Cherub" (A 92); or
as he put it elsewhere, beauty was "better to look upon than
to meddle with" (B-^ 104) . Refusing to submit to the appe
tites of the body, one retained a greater degree of spiri
tuality than men who sullied themselves. This gave a man
insight into the universe because "nothing" was "so real as
that which is spiritual" (B^ 258). Chastity became the "key
of knowledge":
For CHASTITY is the key of knowledge as in Esdras,
Isaac Newton & now, God be praised, in me.
(Bx 194)
Smart even prayed for the Lord to make him a virgin again;
Let Pudens rejoice with Polypus— The Lord restore
my virgin.
(Bj^ 287)
As he said in fragment B2 , the "blessing of God" was "on him
that keeps his virgin" (Bg 667).
The picture of Smart that emerges is paradoxical.
Vacillating between supreme assurance and worldly doubt, he
is at once God's chosen soldier and His humblest suffering
creature. The tone of his self presentation also varies.
159
It ranges from a sublime and mysterious statement like, "in
my nature I quested for beauty, but God, God hath sent me to
sea for pearls" (B^ 30), to the whimsy in Smart's assertion
that he is a "mute fish." There is one constant element,
however. In all his different attitudes, Smart never for
gets to "look up to heaven" (Bj_ 26). "The praise of the
Lord gives propriety to all things" (A 79), he said; and as
either "mute fish," "worm in the rain," madman in Saint
James's Park, or the "Lord's News-Writer— the scribe-evan-
gelist," Smart is a compelling example of God's presence in
"every man's CONSCIENCE" (B2 359).
The universal order that underlies the Seaton poems and
the Song to David is elaborated in Jubilate Aano. Over half
of the "For" verses deal with some part of it. Smart was
intent on presenting the "argument A POSTERIORI" for the
divine presence, "God before every man's eyes" (Bg 360),
because of the threat the new science posed to his beliefs.
Newton and his followers claimed to reveal the "true account
28
of the operations of nature," but to Smart it seemed
pQ
Henry Pemberton, A View of Sir Isaac Newton's Phil
osophy (London, 1728), first page of the introductory letter
160
instead that they were perverting God's role in the uni
verse. Smart did not deny the validity of their discover
ies, but he felt they were built on a false assumption that
dangersouly distorted their meaning. The heart of the new
science was the conviction that there was a physical order
in the universe that would reveal all the secrets of the
cosmos, if carefully studied. Smart maintained that the
basic order was not physical, but spiritual. The physical
laws that the Newtonians uncovered were examples of the way
in which God worked through nature, but there could be no
deep understanding of the universe until one acknowledged
that the Almighty was at the center of everything. To be
lieve that anything could be understood "in VACUO," without
reference to God, was a "flat conceit of preposterous folly"
(BX 264).
D. J. Greene has suggested that Newton is the "villain
of the piece," but he also points out that Smart was not
against the advancement of knowledge from science, only the
29
inept philosophizing of scientists. Smart does castigate
to Sir Robert Walpole.
29"Smart, Berkeley, the Scientists and the Poets: A
Note on Eighteenth-Century Anti-Newtonism," JHI. XIV (1953),
337 .
161
Newton:
Let Barsabas rejoice with Cammarus— Newton is
ignorant for if a man consult not the WORD how
should he understand the WORK?—
(Bx 220)
But he does it while retaining the same respect that he
earlier expressed for him as "irrefragable proof/ Of man's
• 30
vast genius :
For CHASTITY is the key of knowledge as in Esdras,
Sr Isaac Newton & now, God be praised, in me.
For Newton nevertheless is more of error than of
the truth, but I am of the WORD of GOD.
(Bx 194-195)
Smart's real complaint is not with an individual, but
31
with the whole attitude of the period:
300n the Omniscience of the Supreme Being. 11. 92-93.
31smart also criticized Locke and Hume, but apologized
to Hobbes:
For Locke supposes that an human creature, at a
given time may be an atheist i.e. without God,
by the folly of his doctrine concerning innate
ideas.
For it is not lawful to sell poyson in England any
more than it is in Venice, the Lord restrain both
the finder and receiver.
(B2 396-397)
For the Scotchman seeks for truth at the bottom of
a well, the Englishman in the Heavn of Heavens.
162
Let Silas rejoice with the Cabot the philosophy
of the times evn now is vain deceit.
(Bx 219)
The mechanistic approach of the scientists was too intent on
the processes of the universe. To get back on the right
track, philosophy had to recover its faith in God's presence
in every part of nature. Real knowledge could not come from
study alone, only from study coupled with worship:
For Ignorance is a sin, because illumination is
to be had by prayer.
(B2 421)
For an happy Conjecture is a miraculous cast by
the Lord Jesus.
For a bad Conjecture is a draught of stud and mud.
(Bx 173-174)
32
Smart recalled the "knee" motif from the Seaton pieces,
and insisted that to discover the secrets of the universe,
one had to study in the position of prayer:
(B2 378)
Let Crispus rejoice with Leviathan— God be gra
cious to the soul of HOBBES, who was no atheist,
but a servant of Christ, and died in the Lord—
I wronged him God forgive me.
(BX 227)
320n the Immensity of the Supreme Being. 1. 143.
163
For the method of philosophizing is in a posture of
Adoration.
(Bx 268)
For the LONGITUDE may be discovered by attending
the motions of the Sun. Way 2d.
For you must consider the Sun as dodging, which he
does to parry observation.
For he must be taken with an Astrolabe, & considerd
respecting the point he left.
For you must do this upon your knees and that will
secure your point.
(B2 349-352)
Smart set out to construct a system of divine physics.
The scientists had been given credit for the wonders of the
universe because they had revealed them to men, but Smart
would restore the proper perspective by celebrating the Al
mighty, Who had created those wonders:
For I rejoice that I attribute to God, what others
vainly ascribe to feeble man.
(Bx 97)
In spite of the subtleties of the Newtonians, the cos
mos would never yield to human understanding:
For nature is more various than observation tho1
observers be innumerable.
(BX 53)
For the names and numbers of animals are as the
names and number of the stars.
(BX 42)
164
Only God could comprehend the totality of the universe, and
he guided it with care and economy:
For things that are not in the sight of men are
thro' God of infinite concern.
(B2 334)
For there is infinite provision to keep up the life
in all the parts of Creation.
220)
For many a genius being lost at the plough is a
false thought the divine providence is a better
manager.
(B2 571)
Thomas Gray's "village Hampden" and "mute, inglorious Mil-
33
ton" had no place m such a well-managed unxverse. Noth
ing was left to chance; and there was no part of it that did
not demonstrate the truth of God's presence, and depend on
Him for its existence:
For Solomon said vanity of vanities vanity of van
ities all is vanity.
For Jesus says verity of verities verity of veri
ties all is verity.
(Bj^ 287-288)
The same principle is repeated in a variety of examples that
33"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," 11. 57-59.
165
deal with different aspects of the world:
For there is no invention but the gift of God, and
no grace like the grace of gratitude.
(BX 82)
For all good words are from GOD, and all others are
cant.
(Bx 85)
For diligence is the gift of God, as well as other
good things.
(B2 573)
For all Foundation is from God depending.
(B2 616)
For I bless the Lord Jesus from the bottom of Royston
Cave to the top of King's Chapel.
(Bx 44)
For an equivocal generation is a generation and no
generation.
34
(B2 410)
For I bless God for every feather from the wren in
the sedge to the CHERUBS & their MATES.
(B-l 122)
34Bond, p. 99, n. 4. "Equivocal generation is the same
as spontaneous or anomalous generation." Smart means that
though there is a physiological birth, it could not take
place without God, who is behind all creation.
166
For I bless God in the honey of the sugar-cane and
the milk of the cocoa.
(Bx 78)
For I bless God in all gums & balsams & every thing
that ministers relief to the sick.
(B-l 110)
For I bless God in SHIPBOURNE FAIRLAWN the meadows
the brooks and the hills.
(Bj^ 119)
For I bless God in the libraries of the learned &
for all the booksellers in the world.
(Bx 79)
For there is no musick in flats & sharps which are
not in God's natural key.
(B2 364)
Smart was anxious to confront the scientists directly,
however. He wanted to deal with the universe in their terms
to prove that they misinterpreted their observations. He
begins by examining Newton's laws of motions
For MATTER is the dust of the Earth, every atom of
which is the life.
For MOTION is as the quantity of life direct, & that
which hath not motion, is resistance.
For Resistance is not of GOD, but he— hath built his
works upon it.
For the Centripetal and Centrifugal forces are GOD
SUSTAINING and DIRECTING.
For Elasticity is the temper of matter to recover its
place with vehemence.
167
For Attraction is the earning of parts, which have a
similitude in the life.
(B-l 160-165)
For the Centre is not known but by the application
of the members to matter.
For I have shown the Vis Inertiae to be false, and
such is all nonsense.
For the Centre is the hold of the Spirit upon the
matter in hand.
For FRICTION is inevitable because the Universe is
FULL of God's works.
For the PERPETUAL MOTION is in all the works of
Almighty GOD.
For it is not so in the engines of man, which are
made of dead materials, neither indeed can be.
For the Moment of bodies, as it is used, is a false
term— bless God ye Speakers on the Fifth of
November.
For Time and Weight are by their several estimates.
{B1 182-189)
Expounding Newton, Henry Pemberton, the supervisor of the
third edition of the Princioia. had asserted that bodies,
or matter, "have such an indifference to rest, or motion,
35
that if once at rest they remain so . . ." William
Wollaston put it more dramatically, "Matter is incapable of
36
acting, passive only, and gtUPJ-d." Smart could not
33Pemberton, p. 29.
36William Wollaston, The Religion of Nature Delineated
(London, 1725), p. 74. Ainsworth and Noyes record Smart's
familiarity with this book (p. 22).
168
accept this interpretation of the nature of matter. God
was everywhere in the universe, and it was inconceivable
that any part of it could be "passive only, and stupid.1 1
Instead, he maintained that "every atom" was infused with
"MOTION" which was "life direct" from God. The principle
37
of "Vis Inertiae," the idea that matter is inert, was
destroyed? and the theory of "PERPETUAL MOTION" was proved.
In the same way, the "Moment of bodies," their tendency to
produce motion, was a "false term" because the presence of
God in "Time and Weight," the factors from which it was
calculated, was not understood by the scientists.
Smart was able to establish a complete theory of mo
tion. "FRICTION" was "inevitable" because all bodies had
motion, and they could not help rubbing against one another.
The "Centripetal and Centrifugal forces" also were ex
plained. They were "GOD SUSTAINING and DIRECTING" because
the "Centre" of a circle represented the Almighty's "hold
of the Spirit upon the matter in hand."
Pemberton had described "Elasticity" as a property
38
found in "fluids, . . . like our air." "By this property
3 7 w o lla sto n , p . 78.
3®Pemberton, p. 149.
169
any quantity of air may be contracted into a less space by
a forcible pressure, and as soon as the compressing power
is removed, it will spring out again to its former dimen-
39
sion." Smart interpreted elasticity as a reflection of
the completeness and perfection of the universe. Each
thing has a special office, and when forced into another
shape, it would struggle "to recover its place with vehe
mence ."
"Attraction" was the yearning of "parts." Things that
were attracted were drawn by a yearning to return to the
whole from which they had come. The Lord's spirit provided
the power that drew them. The "tides" were "the life of
God in the ocean" (B^ 157); and the "Life of God" also was
"in the Loadstone" (B-^ 166).
"Resistance" was a form of the negative force in the
world, which originated with the devil. The idea of posi
tive and negative forces was carefully elaborated. Most
important was the principle of God's directness. Every
thing from God was direct, real, and straightforward, like
motion which was the "quantity of life direct." Opposed to
directness were the ways of the "adversary" which were
■^Pemberton, p. 149.
170
indirect, devious, and designed to impede the forces of the
Lord. The eclipse that blocked out the heavenly light was
one example of the devil's tricks:
For the ECLIPSE is of the adversary— blessed be the
name of Jesus for Whisson of Trinity.
For the shadow is his and the penumbra is his and
his the perplexity of the phenomenon.
For the eclipses happen at times when the light is
defective.
For the more the light is defective, the more the
powers of darkness prevail.
For deficiencies happen by the luminaries crossing
one another.
(B2 312-316)
The principle enabled Smart to explain negative elements in
the universe, but it also forced him into some rather sur
prising judgments. He had been a playwright at Cambridge,
4
and had been involved in theatrical productions in London;
but nevertheless, he rejected the stage:
For all STAGE-Playing is Hypocrisy and the Devil
is the master of their revels.
(B2 345)
Smart had to condemn the theater because it was representa
tion and not "life direct."
^®At Cambridge, Smart wrote The Grateful Fair, which
was produced there; and in London, he was the impresario of
The Old Woman's Oratory.
171
A related idea accounted for the rejection of things
that came from neither God nor the devil. The "engines" of
man also had none of the "life direct," the Lord's "PERPET
UAL MOTION." They were "dead materials," and one lost
"something" "in the spirit" by yearning for them:
For Painting is a species of idolatry, tho' not so
gross as statuary.
For it is not good to look with earning upon any
dead work.
For by so doing something is lost in the spirit &
given from life to death.
(B2 673-675)
Pemberton used the pendulum and the "mechanical pow
ers," "certain instruments or machines contrived for the
moving of great weights with small force," to demonstrate
41
Newton’s theory of motion. Smart examined them too.
Newton had deduced a scientific explanation for the duration
^Pemberton, p. 69. Smart's use of the six "mechanical
powers" with Newton's laws of motions suggests that Smart
may have had Pemberton's book in mind. Also suggestive is
the fact that among the subscribers to the 1728 edition of
Pemberton’s book is a "Mr. Smart," who could have been
Christopher's father, if Hunter's reference to him is cor
rect: "he had a better taste for literature than is common
ly found in country gentlemen; a taste which he transmitted
to his son." (The Poems of the late Christopher Smart . . .
to which is prefixed an account of his life and writings,
ed. Christopher Hunter [Reading, 1791], I, vi.)
42
of the pendulum's swing, but Smart accounted for it as
evidence that the pendulum parried the devil's "resistance"
For the motion of the PENDULUM is the longest in
that it parries resistance.
(B-l 191)
The six "mechanical powers" in Pemberton's book also were
evaluated:
For the power of the WEDGE is direct as it's alti
tude by communication of Almighty God.
For the Skrew, Axle & Wheel, Pulleys, the Lever &
inclined Plane are known in the Schools.
(Bx 180-181)
The "WEDGE" was the finest of the devices because its power
was "direct," and came straight down from above.
Smart added a seventh "mechanical power," and attached
a fanciful history to it:
For the Shears is the first of the mechanical powers,
and to be used on the knees.
For if Adam had used this instrument right, he would
not have fallen.
For the power of the Shears is direct as the life.
(Bx 177-179)
Before the fall, there was no labor, and man had no need
^ p emberton, pp. 86-87.
173
for mechanical instruments. Adam had invented the "Shears"
to cut the apple down, but if he had used them correctly,
he would have kept them open to the full, where they form a
cross. This would have driven off Satan, and Adam "would
not have fallen."
Smart also replied to Newton's theory of light, but
not so thoroughly. Perhaps if he had finished the poem, it
would have included a fuller explanation. Newton had puz-
43
zled over the complexities of the transmission of light,
but for Smart it was a simple matter:
For the propagation of light is quick as the divine
Conception.
(B2 325)
For LIGHT is propagated at all distances in an in
stant because it is actuated by the divine con
ception .
For the Satellites of the planet prove nothing in
this matter but the glory of Almighty God.
For the SHADE is of death and from the adversary.
(B-l 284-286)
The "propagation," or transmission, of light was divine and
instantaneous. In the celestial sphere, the fact that
heavenly bodies diverted the direct transmission of light
^Pemberton, pp. 376-377.
174
by reflection meant "nothing" because they were examples of
the "glory of Almighty God," and only the "SHADE," or some
other force from the adversary, would ever really impede
the divine light.
There was one part of Newton's theory of light that
Smart considered in detail. Newton had revealed the color
spectrum, but Smart felt that he was overlooking the more
important philosophical relationships of colors:
For Newton's notion of colours is a oyos unphilo-
sophical.
For the colors are spiritual.
For WHITE is the first and the best.
For there are many intermediate colours before you
come to SILVER.
For the next colour is a lively GREY.
For the next colour is BLUE.
For the next is GREEN of which there are ten
thousand distinct sorts.
For the next is YELLOW w0*1 is more excellent than
red, tho Newton makes red the prime. God be
gracious to John Delap.
For RED is the mext working round the Orange.
For Red is of sundry sorts till it deepens to BLACK.
For black blooms and it is PURPLE.
For purple works off to BROWN which is of ten
thousand acceptable shades.
For the next is PALE. God be gracious to William
Whitehead.
For pale works about to White again.
(B2 650-663)
The exact meaning of Smart's order is not clear, but the
general plan is consistent with his other ideas. White is
175
at the top of the wheel, and black at the bottom; and the
colors are valued on the principle of light from God, dark
ness from the devil.
Smart also pointed out the spiritual significance of
color, which Newton had not seen:
NOW that colour is spiritual appears inasmuch as
the blessing of God upon all things descends in
colour.
For the blessing of health upon the human face is
in colour.
For the blessing of God upon purity is in the Vir
gin's blushes.
For the blessing of God in colour is on him that
keeps his virgin.
For I saw a blush in Staindrop Church, which was
of God's own colouring.
For it was the benevolence of a virgin shewn to
me before the whole congregation.
For the blessing of God upon the grass is in shades
of Green visible to a nice observer as they light
upon the surface of the earth.
For the blessing of God unto perfection in all
bloom & fruit is by colouring.
(B2 664-671)
Color was the "blessing of God unto perfection" that show
ered down "upon all things."
Newtonian theories were not the only ones that con
cerned Smart. The modern physical sciences were in their
infancy in the eighteenth century, and men like Edmund
176
44
Hailey, who "was ranked by common consent next to Newton,"
were working feverishly to develop them. Part of the effort
of Hailey and his contemporaries was in the search for know
ledge on which to establish a "Real and Philosophical Mete-
45
orology." Smart considered some of the questions that
occupied the scientists, and offered explanations that were
"Real and Philosophical" in his terms:
For the FOUNTAINS and SPRINGS are the life of the
waters working up to God.
For they are in SYMPATHY with the waters above the
Heavens, which are solid.
For the Fountains, springs and rivers are all of
them from the sea, whose water is filtrated and
purified by the earth.
For there is Water above the visible surface in a
spiritualizing state, which cannot be seen but
by application of a CAPILLARY TUBE.
For the ASCENT of VAPOURS is the return of thanks
giving from all humid bodies.
For the RAIN WATER kept in a reservoir at any alti
tude, suppose of a thousand feet will make a
fountain from a spout of ten feet of the same
height.
For it will ascend in a stream two thirds of the
way and afterwards prank itself into ten thousand
agreeable forms.
For the SEA is a seventh of the Earth— the spirit
of the Lord by Esdras.
(Bx 204-211)
44DNB (New York, 1890), XXIV, 109.
45Edmund Hailey, Miscellanea Curiosa (London, 1726),
I, 2.
177
Genesis Is 6 stated explicitly that the Lord "divided the
waters which were under the firmament from the waters which
were above the firmament." The "FOUNTAINS and SPRINGS" were
"working up to God" because they were governed by the prin
ciple of "Attraction." They were "parts" yearning to re
turn to the "waters above the Heavens." The "ASCENT of
VAPOURS" was a similar phenomenon. The moisture rising
from humid bodies was being drawn to God, but it also rep
resented the prayers of those bodies.
Water began its ascent from the "sea," and was "fil
trated and purified" as it moved through the earth as
"Fountains, springs, and rivers." Its passage between
earth and heaven could be seen "by application of a CAPIL
LARY TUBE," a small-bore glass tube in which "the water
film adhering to the glass on the inside of the tube draws
water up in the tube above the level of the surrounding
46
liquid outside" when it is inserted in a vessel of water.
The scientists explain this as "surface tension," a condi
tion created by intermolecular forces at the free surface
of a liquid (XXI, 595-604); but Smart interpreted it as
proof that water was constantly ascending in a
^Encyclopedia Britannica (Chicago, 1965), IV, 830.
178
"spiritualizing state" that normally could not be seen.
Smart also cleverly distorted the axiom that water will
seek its own level. The assertion that "RAIN WATER" would
rise back to its reservoir height of 1,000 feet when re
leased from a spout only ten feet high was inaccurate, but
it was another piece of evidence that proved water would
strive to ascend to the main body from which it came.
Along with the "CAPILLARY TUBE," Smart considered
other scientific apparatus:
For MERCURY is affected by the AIR because it is
of a similar subtlety.
For the rising in the BAROMETER is not effected
by pressure but by sympathy.
For it cannot be separated from the creature with
which it is intimately & eternally connected.
For where it is stinted of air there it will adhere
together and stretch on the reverse.
For it works by ballancing according to the hold
of the spirit.
For QUICK-SILVER is spiritual and so is the AIR to
all intents and purposes.
For the AIR-PUMP weakens & dispirits but cannot
wholly exhaust.
For SUCKTION is the withdrawing of the life, but
life will follow as fast as it can.
(B2 212-219)
The barometer had been invented in 1643 by Evangelista
47
Torricelli, a former assistant of Galileo; but the way in
47Engycl9pedia P ritam usfl, m , 179.
179
which it worked was imperfectly understood. Hailey still
was theorizing on the "rising and falling of the Mercury,
48
upon Change of Weather." Smart's explanation was related
to the principle of attraction. Mercury and air were in
intimate "sympathy" with one another because they were of a
"similar subtlety." When "stinted of air," the mercury
would "adhere together" and rise in the "BAROMETER" in order
to rejoin the air.
The "AIR-PUMP" also was explained spiritually. It was
an instrument used for exhausting the air from a closed
space; and Smart maintained that by withdrawing the air
which was spiritual "to all intents and purposes," it also
withdrew the "life."
Smart dealt with a number of other questions that were
of interest to the scientists. Stead points out that the
discovery of the longitude was "one of the urgent scientific
49
problems of the day." Smart had been aware of it as early
50
as 1752, and mentions it three times m Jubilate Agno as
48Halley, pp. 81-90.
48Stead, p. 207.
50On the Omniscience, of the Supreme Being. 1. 91.
"What Newton, or not sought, or sought in vain." Footnoted
as longitude in Musae Seatonianae.
180
an example of the wonders that would be understood when men
began "philosophizing" in "a posture of Adoration" (B^ 268).
Electricity was another burning issue. Smart explained
it as a "spiritual substance" which was sent "from heaven
to sustain the bodies both of man and beast" (B2 764). It
provided the "breath of our nostrils" (B^ 265). He would
not accept the "School-Doctrine" that related thunder and
lightning to electricity, however (B^ 269). They were the
"voice of God direct," and the "glance" of his "glory" (B^
271-272); and it was "Diabolical" to explain them in natural
terms (B^ 269).
Additional problems were raised. The "phenomenon of
the horizontal moon" (B2 426) was solved in a way that D. J.
51
Greene finds strikingly similar to Berkeley. There were
references to the "Phenomenon of the Diving Bell" (B2 462),
the "INNATATION" of corpuscles (B2 346), the "CIRCULATION of
the SAP in all vegetables" (B2 341), and other current
scientific questions. They were all brief, however, and
most of the scientific material fits into one of the larger
patterns that has already been discussed.
Smart also presented an elaborate theory of sound
^Greene, pp. 340-341.
181
221-257), but he did it entirely in spiritual terms and
made no attempt to incorporate contemporary science.
"SOUND" was "propagated in the spirit and in all directions"
(B-^ 226), by "GOD the father Almighty" who played upon a
"HARP of stupendous magnitude and melody" (B^ 246). His
"tune" was the "work of creation" (B^ 247). The sounds of
the Lord were direct and loud, however, and "all whispers
and unmusical sounds" (B^ 231) came from the "Adversary."
"Curses and evil language" contaminated the air (B^ 221),
but it was purified by "prayer" "made aloud and with all
our might" (B^ 224). The "VOICE," which was both "a body
and a spirit" (B^ 239), represented the thing it came from
"compleat in all its parts" (B-^ 227). A man spoke "HIMSELF
52
from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet." The
"ECHO" was "the soul of the voice" (B^ 235), which a "good
voice" had in order to "parry the adversary" (B^ 236).
Smart commented on a few musical instruments in the
-‘ ^Bjl 228. Cf. Gerard Manley Hopkins' "As kingfishers
catch fire, dragonflies draw flame."
each hung bell's
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells,
Selves— goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.
182
passage on sound. "HARPSICHORDS" were "best strung with
gold wire" (B^ 241), but "Indian weed," or silkworm gut, was
better for "HARPS and VIOLS" (Bx 242). The "most direct &
acceptable of all instruments" was the trumpet (B^ 244),
which was like the "TRUMPET" of God (B^ 245). The "AEolian
harp" could be improved into "regularity" (B^ 250), and it
would become a "SHAWM," the "strings" of which were "upon a
cylinder" (B^ 253). Smart apparently was confused about
the shawm, which is not a string instrument at all, but an
early form of the oboe.
The demonstration of "God before every man's eyes" was
not limited to replies to the scientists, however. Smart
also attempted to show that the races of man were arranged
in a spiritual hierarchy (Bg 433-461), and he repeatedly
celebrated the divine presence as it appeared in a number
of other manifestations that were not directly concerned
with science. He was enchanted by flowers:
For the doubling of flowers is the improvement of
the gardners talent.
For the flowers are great blessings.
For the Lord made a Nosegay in the medow with his
disciples & preached upon the lily.
For the angels of God took it out of his hand and
carried it to the Height.
For there is no Height in which there are not flow
ers .
For flowers have great virtues for all the senses.
For the flower glorifies God and the root parries
183
the adversary.
For the flowers have their angels even the words
of God's Creation.
For the warp & woof of flowers are worked by per
petual moving spirits.
For flowers are good both for the living and the
dead.
For there is a language of flowers.
For there is a sound reasoning upon all flowers.
For elegant phrases are nothing but flowers.
For flowers are peculiarly the poetry of Christ.
For flowers are medicinal.
For flowers are musical in ocular harmony.
For the right name of flowers are yet in heaven.
God make gardners better nomenclators.
(B2 492-509)
Flowers were "peculiarly the poetry of Christ," and their
existence glorified God.
Other things had the same magical effect for Smart:
Let Knightly, house of Knightly rejoice with Zoro-
nysios a gem supposed by the ancients to have
magical effects. Star— word— herb— gem.
(D 51)
"Star— word— herb— gem," all four were particularly striking
evidence of the Lord's presence. God was manifest in the
wonderful gem, "GLADWICK" (B^ 199-203), and in the stars
that represented "DISCERNMENT" (B2 377), "PRUDENCE" (B2
379), "FORTITUDE" (B2 383), "DISPENSATION" (B2 385), and
"TEMPERANCE" (B2 391), just as He was in the medicinal power
of herbs:
n
184
For TEA is a blessed plant and of excellent virtue.
God give the Physicians more skill and honesty!
For nutmeg is exceeding wholesome and cherishing,
neither does it hurt the liver.
For Lavender Cotton is exceeding good for the teeth.
God be gracious to Windsmore.
For the Fern is exceeding good & pleasant to rub
the teeth.
For a strong preperation of Mandragora is good for
the gout.
For the Bark was a communication from God and is
sovereign.
(B2 465-471)
Words held an even greater fascination. "Good words"
were "from God" (B^ 85), and "Action & Speaking" were the
53
same to the Lord (B2 562). Words were intimately related:
For all the stars have satellites, which are terms
under their respective words.
For tiger is a word and his satellites are Griffin,
Storgis, Cat and others.
(B2 402-403)
For the Cherub Cat is a term of the Angel Tiger.
(B2 725)
There were even letters that could never be communicated:
For there are more letters in all languages not
communicated.
(C 40)
53Cf. B2 676-696.
185
For they are signs of speech too precious to he
communicated for ever.
(C 45)
Certain symbols were "too precious," or too spiritual, for
man to understand.
Smart did make two attempts to explain the spiritual
54
essence of the English alphabet, however, and he also
studied the Hebrew character *7 , which is equivalent to
"L," and represents a pun on "'el," or God (B^ 477-491).
None of these passages is very interesting, and one verse
summed up their content:
For Christ being A and Q is all the intermediate
letters without doubt.
(C 18)
The attempts to prove that the "power of some animal is
predominant in every language" (Bg 627) are much more inter
esting. From the sounds of certain Greek and Latin words,
Smart concludes that the "power and spirit of a CAT is in
the Greek" (B2 628), and that the "Mouse (Mus) prevails in
the Latin" (B2 638). His cleverest reasoning is with Eng
lish:
■*^B2 513-562, C 1-18. Smart also tries to explain the
numbers spiritually, C 19-38.
186
For two creatures the Bull & the Dog prevail in the
English.
For all the words ending in ble are in the creature.
Invisi-ble, Incomprehensi-ble, ineffa-ble, A-ble.
(B2 645-646)
For can is (canis) is cause and effect a dog.
For the English is concise and strong. Dog & Bull
again.
(B2 648-649)
The bulldog is a traditional symbol of the English nation,
and the bull and dog prevail in the language. The bull is
evident in the frequent use of the ending, "-ble," which
also can be linked to the dog. The Latin root "can-," which
appears in English as canine, has the same meaning as the
ending "-ble," when it is used as the verb "can." The
complete Latin word, "canis," also is found in English. The
verbs "can is" are related by "cause & effect," and together
they form "a dog." Can or the ability to do something,
implies "cause," while "is" suggests the action completed,
or "effect."
Perhaps the most charming demonstration of the Almighty
manifested in the world, however, is the familiar passage on
Smart's cat, Jeoffrey, the feline "servant of the Living
God," who began each day with prayer (Bg 697-770). Jeoffrey
was the "compleat cat," who would purr when the Lord told
187
him he had been good, and Smart could not look at him with
out seeing the divine presence. Like everything else in
the world, Jeoffrey was part of the spiritual order that
constantly attested to God's existence.
The third major thought pattern in the poem is the
attempt at prophecy. As a "man gifted in the word" (C 57),
Smart undertook "the best and noblest of all employments,"
55
the "prediction of future events."
The idea of "eternities" was behind the prophetic at
tempt. For man, the universe was an eternity, but God could
56
comprehend its beginning and end. It was another "crea
ture" (B^ 170) that He had created, and its duration de
pended solely on Him:
For Faith as a grain of mustard seed is to believe,
as I do, that an Eternity is such in respect to
the power and magnitude of Almighty God.
(B2 368)
5^Lowth, p. 27.
S^This idea recalls Smart's assertion in the first
Seaton piece that God comprehends the past, present, and
future simultaneously. Cf. On the Eternity of the Supreme
Bsi-ng, n. 22-29.
188
This gave the universe a form in time. It was not something
that went aimlessly on forever. It had limits and was head
ed toward a goal. God was continually "making" other eter
nities (Bg 329), and this one was moving with them to a
grand consummation:
For the Four and Twenty Elders of the Revelation
are Four and Twenty Eternities.
For their Four and Twenty Crowns are their re
spective Consummations.
(B2 361-362)
The universe was progressing toward a perfection that would
represent its crown.
The movement of an eternity was circular, however. God
has originated the universe, and it was perfect in the be
ginning. Incursions by the devil, and the introduction of
man's own "dead materials" had destroyed its primeval
spirituality, but that would be restored in its consumma
tion .
The extent to which things had deteriorated was not
sufficiently realized. Before Adam's fall, the world had
been of a more "delicate construction":
For there was no rain in Paradise because of the
delicate construction of the spiritual herbs and
flowers.
(B2 376)
189
In post-lapsarian times, things also had declined drasti
cally. "Man and Earth" suffered "together" (Bg 155), and
men were telling examples of the plight of the whole world:
For degeneracy has done a great deal more than is
in general imagined.
For men in David's time were ten feet high in gen
eral.
For they had degenerated also from the strength of
their fathers.
(C 90-92)
The worst humiliation had come after "David's time":
For in the day of David Man as yet had a glorious
horn upon his forehead.
For this horn was a bright substance in colour &
consistence as the nail of the hand.
For it was broad, thick and strong so as to serve
for defence as well as ornament.
For it brightened to the Glory of God, which came
upon the human face at morning prayer.
For it was largest and brightest in the best men.
For it was taken away all at once from all of them.
For this was done in the divine contempt of a gen
eral pusillanimity.
For this happened in a season after their return
from the Babylonish captivity.
For their spirits were broke and their manhood
impaird by foreign vices for exaction.
(C 119-127)
Man had lost his "horn" because of his "general pusillani
mity" following the "Babylonish captivity." Its loss was
an indication that his spirit was broken, and that his man
hood had been "impaird."
190
57
The "horn" is a brilliant symbol. The Old Testament,
and particularly the psalms, suggested it to Smart. Pos
sibly he was working from the same inspiration that had led
Michelangelo to portray Moses with horns on the tomb of
Julius II.
58
There are ten references to the "horn" in the psalms.
Most often, it is related to the weapon of an animal, like
the "horn of an unicorn" (XCII: 10), and it is a "symbol of
59
strength and dignity." Additionally, the horn represents
fecundity and abundance. The "horn of David" would "bud" in
order to provide him with an heir (CXXXII: 17). It also can
be linked to Christ. In the eighteenth psalm, the horn is
the "horn" of "salvation," David's "rock," "fortress," and
"deliverer" (v. 2). These associations made it a perfect
symbol with which to portray man's broken spirit and "im
paird" manhood. The loss of the horn had taken away man's
5^Cf. Gerard Manley Hopkins' notes on the horn from an
early diary. Poems and Prose of Gerard Manlev Hopkins, ed.
W. H. Gardner (London, 1953), pp. 89-90. "The various
lights under which a horn may be looked at have given rise
to a vast number of words in language."
58XVIII: 2, LXXV: 4-5, LXXXIX: 17 and 24, XCII: 10 (2),
CXII: 9, CXXXII: 17, CXLVIII: 14.
59The Interpreter's Bible, ed. George A. Buttrick (New
York, 1955), IV, 401.
191
"strength and dignity," limited his fecundity, and by im
plication, endangered his salvation.
The loss of the horn was not the only thing that marked
the universal decline. Smart saw other signs of decay all
around him. One of them was the attempt to order the Al
mighty's "times & seasons" (B2 576):
For the Names of the DAYS, as they now stand, are
foolish & abominable.
For the Days are the First, Second, Third, Fourth,
Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh.
For the names of the months are false— the Hebrew
appellatives are of God.
(B2 406-408)
Languages also had lost their pristine purity:
For the ACCENTS are the invention of the Moabites,
who learning the GREEK tongue marked the words
after their own vicious pronuntiation.
For the GAULS (the now-French and original Moabites)
after they were subdued by Caesar became such
Grecians at Rome.
For the Gaullic manuscripts fell into the hands of
the inventors of printing.
(B2 398-400)
For the Romans clipped their words in the Augustan
thro idleness and effeminacy and paid foreign
actors for speaking them out.
(B2 417)
Shaving was one of the things that signified man's deteri
oration:
192
For shaving of the beard was an invention of the
people of Sodom to make men look like women.
(B2 419)
For Shaving of the face was the invention of the
Sodomites to make men look like women.
(B2 578)
The "impudence & blindness" of human "laws & judge
ment" (B 292) were a particularly provoking indication of
decay. Man failed to realize that God alone was capable of
establishing permanent rules. Even the Mosaic laws had
dealt only with specific incidents:
For the very particular laws of Moses are the
determinations of CASES that fell under his
cognizance.
(B2 415)
The great fault in the laws of men was the assumption on
which they were based. Justice was overvalued:
For Tully says to be generous you must be first just,
but the voice of Christ is distribute at all events.
(B2 386)
For Justice is infinitely beneath Mercy in nature and
office.
For the Devil himself may be just in accusation and
punishment.
(B2 320-321)
The zeal for justice drove men to accusation and punishment,
which retarded their progress and forced God to withhold His
blessing:
For where Accusation takes the place of encourage
ment a man of Genius is driven to act the vices
of a fool.
(B2 365)
For, when the nation is at war, it is better to
abstain from the punishment of criminals espec
ially, every act of human vengeance being a
check to the grace of God.
(B2 476)
Before the millennium could succeed, men would have to for
sake their own laws, and submit themselves to the real
source of judgment:
Let Zenas rejoice with Pecten— The Lord obliterate
the laws of man'.
(Bx 291)
Let Apphia rejoice with Pelamis— The Lord Jesus is
man1s judgement.
(Bx 293)
Not all the signs that Smart noted were bad, however.
This "eternity" had reached its nadir, and now it was moving
6 0
toward another "Age of the Horn." There were heartening
60Kuhn, p. 123.
194
indications of improvement which suggested that Smart's
"seed" would "worship the Lord JESUS as numerous & musical
as the grashoppers of Paradise" (B^ 100):
For I bless God in the rising generation, which is
on my side.
(B1 10)
For the learning of the Lord increases daily, as the
sun is an improving angel.
(Bx 102)
For the art of Agriculture is improving.
For this is evident in flowers.
For it is more especially manifest in double flowers.
For earth will get it up again by the blessing of '
God on the industry of man.
(C 157-160)
For I pray God to bless improvements in gardening
till London be a city of palm-trees.
(B1 28)
London would become another Jericho, the "city of palm-
61
trees" from the Old Testament.
Arthur Sherbo has noted that Smart got many of the
English names in fragment D from contemporary obituary
lists, concentrating particularly on individuals who had
^Deuteronomy XXXIV: 3.
195
62
died at an advanced age. These elders were another proof
of the coining millennium. The fifth chapter of Genesis
points out that men lived much longer in the golden age that
had passed. Smart affirmed that "grey hairs are honourable
and tell every one of them to the glory of God" (B^ 83),
and predicted that men would "live to a much greater age"
when paradise was restored (C 8 8 ).
Smart even asserted that the new "Age of the Horn" was
not far offs
For the HOST is in the WEST— the Lord make us
thankful unto salvation.
(B-l 8)
The new day was dawning, and England would lead the refor
mation:
For I bless God that the CHURCH of ENGLAND is one
of the SEVEN evn the candlestick of the Lord.
For the ENGLISH TONGUE shall be the language of
the WEST.
(Bx 126-127)
The "CHURCH of ENGLAND" was the leader of the "seven candle
sticks" that represented the Lord’s "seven churches" in The
Revelation of St. John I: 20. A number of things made
62»Qhristopher Smart, Reader of Obituaries," MLN. LXXI
(1956), 177-182.
196
England an especially suitable place in which the reforma
tion could begin. The special relationship that the English
people had with Christian heroes from the past has already
been pointed out. England also was graced with a favorable
location. The "HOST" would rise in the "WEST," and Great
Britain stood at the western entrance to all of Europe.
There were even signs that God had given the island a series
of unusual blessings:
Let Gaius rejoice with the Water Tortoise— Paul &
Tychicus were in England with Agricola my father.
Let Aristarchus rejoice with Cynoglossus— The Lord
was at Glastonbury in the body and blessed the
thorn.
Let Alexander rejoice with the Sea-Urchin. The
Lord was at Bristol & blessed the waters there.
Let Sopater rejoice with Elacate— The waters of
Bath were blessed by St. Matthias.
(Bx 231-234)
The "ENGLISH TONGUE" was a further indication that England
had been chosen to lead the spiritual renaissance. It was
peculiarly suited to be the "language" of the millennium
because God had preserved it from the degeneracy that
afflicted Latin and Greek:
For God has given us a language of monosyllables to
prevent our clipping.
(B2 579)
197
The step that was necessary to restore the "terres
trial Paradise" recalls the "knee" motif:
Let Chloe rejoice with the Limpin— There is a way
to the terrestrial Paradise upon the knees.
Let Carpus rejoice with the Frog-Fish— A man can
not die upon his knees.
(Bx 268-269)
Men had to devote their lives to adoration, both in their
ritual and in their actions. In the millennium, they again
would "learn the use of their knees" (C 108). The passage
echoes all the other admonitions to praise in Smart's
poetry, and reminds us how consistent his ideas remained.
When the new age arrived, it would be ushered in by the
"furnace." Fire had the power to purify "evn in hell" (B^
176); and though it could be "exasperated by the Adversary"
(B1 172), there was a "Fire which is blandishing, and which
is of God direct" (B^ 175):
For all the filth of wicked men shall be done away
by fire in Eternity.
For the furnace itself shall come up at the last
according to Abraham's vision.
For the Convex of Heaven shall work about on that
great event.
For the ANTARTICK POLE is not yet but shall answer
in the Consummation.
(Bx 292-295)
6 3
Abraham had seen a "smoking furnace" in the sky. "HELL"
was "without eternity from the presence of Almighty God"
(Bg 322); and when the golden age came, the furnace would
be rotated from below the earth to the heavens, where it
would burn away "the filth of wicked men." Lines 294-295
indicate that Smart even was able to justify the idea
scientifically. In his book, The Sacred Theory of the
64
Earth. Thomas Burnet had maintained that "the Earth
changed its posture at the Deluge; . . . its Poles before
pointed to the Poles of the Ecliptick" (I, 183). Smart
thought that the earth would return to its old position when
paradise was restored. The "Convex of Heaven" would "work
about," hell would become a furnace in the sky, and the
"ANTARTICK POLE" would "answer," or show itself. The old
position of the poles insured that there was a temperate
climate everywhere, with no "variety of seasons"(I, 183), so
the ice cover on the poles would soon melt. Smart even saw
evidence of all this happening. The "PRECESSION of the
Equinoxes" (Bg 347), which slowly moves the equinoctial
points westward along the ecliptic, was "improving nature"
®"^Genesis XV: 17 .
64(London, 1697), 2 vols.
because it represented the first step in the return of the
world to its antediluvian position.
Smart's actual attempts at prophecy echo ideas that
were introduced earlier in the poem. Many of them represent
remedies for specific grievances. The "officers of the
peace" (B^ 90), who had interrupted Smart in his prayers,
no longer would bother him:
For I prophecy that the praise of God will be in
every man's mouth in the Publick streets.
For I prophecy that there will be Publick worship
in the cross ways and fields.
(C 62-63)
Virginity would be valued again:
For I prophecy that there will be less mischief
concerning women.
For I prophecy that they will be cooped up and
kept under due controul.
(C 66-67)
Smart would not have to fear illness anymore:
For I prophecy that men will be much stronger in
the body.
For I prophecy that the gout, and consumption will
be curable.
(C 74-75)
The "Hypocrisy" of "STAGE-Playing" (Bg 345) would be re
jected:
200
For I prophecy that there will be full churches and
empty play-houses.
(C 6 8 )
For I prophecy that players and mimes will not be
named amongst us.
(C 93)
Human laws would be reformed:
For I prophecy that there will be more mercy for
criminals.
(C 65)
For I prophecy that they will not dare imprison
a brother or sister' for debt.
(C 72)
Men would grow their beards again:
For I prophecy that all Englishmen will wear their
beards again.
(C 130)
The proper "Names of the DAYS" (B2 406) would be restored:
For I prophecy that they will call the days by
better names.
For the Lord’s day is the first.
For the following is the second.
For so of the others until the seventh.
For the seventh day is the Sabbath according to
the word of God direct for ever and ever.
(C 81-85)
Man would recognize the efficacy of rain, and begin to
201
"worship naked" in it as Smart had (Bj 37):
For I prophecy that they will understand the blessing
and virtue of the rain.
For rain is exceedingly good for the human body.
For it is good to have flat roofs to the houses, as
of old.
For it is good to let the rain come upon the naked
body unto purity and refreshment.
(C 110-113)
The principle of God's "directness" also would be under
stood. Men would realize that they should allow nothing to
hinder the Lord's blessing:
For it is not good to wear any thing upon the head.
For a man should put no obstacle between his head
and the blessing of Almighty God.
For a hat was an abomination of the heathen. Lord
have mercy upon the Quakers.
For the ceiling of the house is an obstacle and
therefore we pray on the house-top.
(C 133-136)
The most important thing, however, was the recovery of
the horn:
For I prophecy that we shall have our horns again.
(C 118)
The restoration of the horn would insure that men were ready
for the new paradise:
For the head will be liable to less disorders on
the recovery of its horn.
202
For the horn on the forehead is a tower upon an
arch.
For it is a strong munition against the adversary,
who is sickness & death.
For it is instrumental in subjecting the woman.
(C 137-140)
Man could recover his broken spirit and "impaird" manhood.
The'horn would herald the millennium that restored the
pristine spirituality of David's time. Once again, men
would "obey the motion of the spirit" (C 59). A golden age
was coming, and it would be an era in which Smart finally
would be given the respect he deserved as the "scribe-
evangelist," the "Reviver of ADORATION."
Jubilate Acrno is a fragment, and no amount of study can
explain all its loose ends. Nevertheless, it represents the
fullest explanation of Smart's religious views. They are
elaborated with all the intricate associations that had
developed in his mind during the years of spiritual awaken
ing and trial.
We must be sure to recognize that the poem is an elab
oration, however, and not a change in Smart's views. Though
it has a multitude of new complexities, it still depends on
the same ideas that are essential to the theme of praise
203
in the Sona to David and in the Seaton pieces. Realizing
this, we can then see how closely related all Smart's re
ligious poems really are.
Three basic elements have emerged in the theme of
praise: the desire to confess the Lord's presence, and
report His praise; the effort to demonstrate God's presence
both in nature and in man; and Smart's identification with
the ideal of the Christian hero. These ideas represent the
principal links that tie the religious poems together.
The first one was stated directly in the second Seaton
piece. Smart affirmed that he wanted to join with the "ten
thousand tongues" of "Nature" in their song to God (1. 6 ).
He too would "Confess His presence, and report His praise"
(1. 11).
The principle was important to the structure of the
Seaton poems. Each of them followed the same pattern. The
body of the poem was devoted to a demonstration of God's
presence in the universe manifest in some particular attri
bute; and this was followed by a concluding hymn of praise.
In this way, each of them included two distinct sections,
one that confessed the Lord's presence, and another that
reported His praise.
The two parts of the idea were not so clearly delineat-
204
ed in the Sona to David. Instead, they are interwoven with
one another. The glorification of the psalmist and the
celebration of nature in the "ADORATION" section demonstrate
God's presence in the world, but they also emphasize the
necessity of praise. David is lauded as the "minister of
praise at large" (III); and the "ADORATION" stanzas depend
on the assumption that nature in action is nature fulfilling
the primary commandment, "Praise above all— for praise pre
vails" (L).
In Jubilate Aano. the idea is an essential part of the
antiphonal character of the poem. Each pair of verses is an
attempt to confess the Almighty's presence, and report His
praise. The "Let" verses, which call upon "Nations, and
languages, and every Creature" to "Rejoice in God" (A 1-2),
report His praise; while the "For" verses provide a demon
stration of His presence that makes the praise justified.
The idea represents Smart's primary intention throughout
his religious poems, and it also is an important factor in
their structure.
The second element in the theme of praise, the attempt
to demonstrate God's presence both in nature and in man, is
another factor that influenced the structure of Smart's
poems, particularly the Sona to David. The idea was
205
enunciated in the first Seaton piece. God's "great name"
was present "Deep in the human heart, and every atom/ The
Air, the Earth, or azure Main contains" (11. 2-4). The
principle appeared again in the second, fourth, and fifth
Seaton pieces. Man could find the Almighty not only within
6 5
nature, but "at home, within himself." God existed in
66
the immortal soul, the crown of His "glory," the "Spirit's
67
flaming sword."
In the Song to David, the idea suggests the basic divi
sion in the poem. The first half of it concentrates on
David to demonstrate God in man. The Lord's presence in
nature is touched on only occasionally in order to counter
point the consideration of the psalmist. The second half
of the poem reverses the procedure. God in nature becomes
the central issue, and David is introduced only rarely. The
poem divides into two sections, one of which shows God in
man, while the other shows God in nature.
The same division is important in Jubilate Agno. The
"For" verses, which are intended to confess the Almighty's
6 50n the Immensity of the Supreme Being. 1. 136.
6 60n the Power of the Supreme Being. 1. 111.
6 70n the Goodness of the Supreme Being. 1. 120.
206
presence, are devoted to three subjects: Smart himself,
his system of universal order, and prophecy. The first two
take up the "A PRIORI" and "A POSTERIORI" arguments for the
Lord's presence, "GOD in every man's CONSCIENCE" (Bg 359)
and "God before every man's eyes" (Bp 360). Smart's con
sideration of himself shows that God exists within man, and
his system of universal order proves that He also exists
throughout the worId.
The third basic element in the theme of praise is the
Christian hero ideal. Though Smart referred to himself as
God's "POET" in the second Seaton piece (1. 2), his identi
fication with the Christian hero, who was both priest and
prophet, was not spelled out until the last Seaton poem.
There, he called upon "Israel's sweet Psalmist" (1. 2), for
aid; and he also portrayed Europe in terms that made it a
land of Christian warriors.
The image of the Christian hero was more important in
the Sona to David and Jubilate Aano. Smart's dedication to
the Almighty had increased, and he envisioned himself as a
modern embodiment of that ideal. In the Song to David, it
determined his subject. He celebrated the "Best man" (IV),
who served the Lord "In armour, or in ephod" (XV). In
Jubilate Agno. his own role as a Christian hero was laid
207
out. Smart traced his relationship to a long line of heroes
from the past; and the belief that he could number himself
among them led him to attempt prophecy. As one who had been
"maik'd" by the Lord, it was his "business" "to prophecy
good" (C 57).
The basic elements behind Smart's religious poems re
mained the same, but there were other similarities too.
Many ideas that played a smaller part in the theme of praise
also were carried over from poem to poem. The phrase, "thou
art," for example, was used in the first Seaton piece as the
hymn which the grand chorus of all nature sang to acknow
ledge God as its Creator (11. 28-29). In the Sona to David,
it appeared again as the basic element in Smart's exercise
on the decalogue (XL-XLVIII), and it enabled him to suggest
that one could join the chorus of praise by following the
Christian commandments.
Smart's refutation of Newton's theory of motion in
Jubilate Aano provides a similar example. His objection to
Newton's views was rooted in the question of the nature of
matter. Newton had maintained that it had no inherent life,
but Smart insisted that every atom had its own "MOTION,"
which was "life direct" from God (B^ 161). The same idea
had appeared earlier in the first Seaton piece, when Smart
208
affirmed that God was present in "every atom" of the natural
world (11. 3-4).
These are only two examples, and there are numerous
others that can be pointed out. The "knee" motif, for in
stance, appears in the Seaton poems, and it also plays an
important role in Jubilate Aqno. It is unnecessary to pur
sue any more specific examples, however. The ones that we
have seen demonstrate that the lesser ideas in the theme of
praise remained consistent, just as its basic elements did.
Though Smart's ideas remained the same, there is still
a tremendous qualitative difference between the Seaton
pieces and the Song to David and Jubilate Aqno. The devel
opment of the Christian hero ideal points out what caused
that difference. In the Seaton poems, the Christian hero
was given less attention than the other basic elements in
the theme of praise. It was only later, in Smart's pictures
of David and of himself, that it was fully elaborated. The
Christian hero represents dedication to the Almighty. He
is willing to give up the "pomp and vanities of the world"
68
(A 69) for a "higher claim/ To God's applause." Smart
became increasingly interested in the ideal as his own sense
^®"Ode to General Draper," 11. 37-38.
209
of dedication grew.
Prior to the Sona to David and Jubilate Aqno. Smart
entered into a relationship with God that enabled him to
apprehend the Almighty on the deepest, most intense personal
level. It gave Smart an unwavering faith in the reality of
the Lord, and in the reality of His presence in the world;
and these beliefs led him to commit himself to the role of
Christian hero. The ideas that he had grasped academically
while writing the Seaton pieces developed a whole new mean
ing. God's presence in the universe, and the necessity to
acknowledge it with praise became vital truths, and it was
imperative that all men believe them.
In the Sona to David and Jubilate Aano. Smart addres
sed his material with this new enthusiasm and sense of
mission. It enabled him to create two poems that are in
finitely better than anything else he wrote. They repre
sent the two pillars on which Smart's reputation must
stand. Nevertheless, we do him an injustice if we look at
the Song to David and Jubilate Aqno alone. They have been
shrouded in an aura of madness for too long, and it is only
when we see them in relation to the Seaton pieces that we
can understand that along with their spiritual brilliance,
210
they contain a hard core of carefully thought out, logically
consistent ideas.
LIST OF WORKS C O N S U L T E D
LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED
Abbott, Charles D. "Christopher Smart's madness," PMLA.
XLV (1930), 1014-1022.
_. "The date of Christopher Smart's con
finement,"______ November 3, 1927, p. 790.
_. "The date of Christopher Smart's con
finement," TLS, January 24, 1929, p. 62.
Ainsworth, E. G. "An unrecorded work by Christopher Smart,"
Corr. in TLS. October 15, 1938, p. 661.
Ainsworth, Edward G. and Charles E. Noyes. Christopher
Smartf A Biographical and Critical Study. University
of Missouri Studies. Columbia, 1943.
Binyon, Laurence. The Case of Christopher Smart. The
English Association, Pamphlet No. 90. Oxford, 1934.
Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus. The Consolation of
Philosophy. ed. William Anderson. London, 1963.
Bond, W. H. "Christopher Smart's Jubilate Aqno." Harvard
library Bulletin, iv (1950), 38-52.
Boswell, James. Letters. ed. Chauncey B. Tinker. 2 vols.
Oxford, 1924.
_______________ . The Life of Samuel Johnson. L.L.D. 6 vols.
London, 1799.
Brittain, Robert. "An early model for Smart's Song to
David." PMLA. LVI (1941), 165-174.
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Adams, Francis Daly
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The Major Religious Poems Of Christopher Smart
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