The Eulogies of Howard - William Hayley
THE EULOGIES OF HOWARD.
A VISION.
----to tell of deeds
Above heroic. MILTON.
M.DCC.XCI.
THE EULOGIES OF HOWARD
It was my chance to be conversing with a Friend of the benevolent and
indefatigable HOWARD, when our country was first afflicted with the
public intelligence of his death. After our first expression of surprize
and sorrow, we naturally fell into serious and affectionate reflections
on the gentle character and sublime pursuits of the deceased. On these
articles we had no difference of opinion; but in the course of our
conversation a point arose, on which our sentiments were directly
opposite, though we were equally sincere and ardent in our regret and
veneration for the departed Worthy, to whom it related. I happened to
speak of the public honours that, I hoped, a grateful, a generous, a
magnificent Nation would render to his memory. My companion immediately
exclaimed, "that every ostentatious memorial, to commemorate the virtues
of his friend, would be inconsistent with the meekness and simplicity of
the man; that all, who had the happiness of knowing HOWARD, must
recollect with what genuine modesty he had ever retired from the
enthusiastic admiration of those, who had hoped to gratify his ambition
by undeserved applause; that he had really sought no reward but in the
approbation of his conscience and his GOD; that the British Nation,
however eminent for genius and munificence, could not devise any
posthumous honours, or raise any monument, truly worthy of HOWARD,
except in adopting and accomplishing those benevolent projects which his
philanthropy and experience had recommended to public attention for the
benefit of mankind."
I readily admitted the singular and unquestionable modesty of the
deceased.--I allowed that the noblest tribute of respect, which the
world could render to so pure a spirit, would be to realize his ideas;
but I contended, that other honours are still due to his name; that it
is the duty and the interest of mankind to commemorate his character
with the fondest veneration. I reminded my companion, that although we
were sincerely convinced that no human mind, engaged in great designs,
could be more truly modest than that of HOWARD; yet we had particular
reason to recollect, that he was not insensible to praise. He had once
imparted to us his feelings on that subject with a frank and tender
simplicity, highly graceful in an upright and magnanimous being,
conscious of no sentiment that he could wish to conceal. Indeed, a
sincere and ardent passion for virtue could hardly subsist with a
disdain of true glory, which is nothing more than the proper testimony
of intelligent and honed admiration to the existence of merit: nor is it
reasonable to suppose that the fondest expressions of remembrance from a
world, which he has served and enlightened, can be displeasing to the
spirit of "a just man made perfect;" since we are taught by Religion,
that the gratitude of mankind is acceptable even to GOD. I endeavoured
to convince my companion, that, as the Publick had seen in HOWARD a
person who reflected more genuine honour on our country than any of her
Philosophers, her Poets, her Orators, her Heroes, or Divines, it is
incumbent on the Nation to consult her own glory by commemorating, in
the fullest manner, his beneficent exertions, and by establishing the
dignity of his unrivaled virtue.
My arguments, and my zeal, made some impression on the mind of my
antagonist; and sunk so deeply into my own, that on my retiring to rest
they gave rise to the following vision.
I was suddenly transported to the confines of a region, which astonished
me by its loveliness and extent; it was called, The Paradise of true
Glory. As I approached the entrance, my eyes were delightfully
fascinated by two beings of human form, who presided over the portal.
Their names were Genius and Sensibility:--it was their office to gratify
with a view of this Paradise every mortal that revered them sincerely;
and to reject only such intruders as presumed to treat either the one or
the other with the insolence of disdain, or the coldness of contempt: an
incident that I should have thought impossible, from the transcendent
beauty which is visible in each; but, to my surprize, they informed me
it very frequently happened.
As I readily paid them the unsuspected homage of my soul, I was
graciously permitted to pass the gate.--Immediately as I entered, I was
saluted with a seraphic smile, by two benignant and inseparable Spirits:
these were Gratitude and Admiration, the joint rulers of the
dominion--"You are welcome," said the first, in a tone of angelic
tenderness--"You are welcome to a scene utterly new to your senses, and
in harmony with your heart: you delight in the praises of the deserving:
and you are now wafted to a spot, where those who have merited highly of
mankind are praised in proportion to their desert, and where the praise
of exalted merit is fondly listened to by an extensive human audience,
here purified by our supernatural agency from all the low and little
jealousies of the earth."
I had hardly answered this pleasing information by a grateful obeisance
to my radiant informer, when I perceived, in a gorgeous prospect that
now opened before us, three structures of stupendous size and superior
magnificence. The first was situated in a grove of olives, and appeared
to me like an ancient temple of Attica, remarkable for massive strength,
and a sober dignity--the second was less solid, but richer in
decoration; and seemed to be almost surrounded by every tree and plant
on which Nature has bestowed any salutary virtue: the third was shaded
only by palms; the form of it was so wonderfully grand and aweful, that
it struck me as a sanctuary for every pure and devout spirit from all
the nations of the globe.
"These structures, that you survey with astonishment," said one of my
benevolent conductors, "are devoted to what you mortals denominate the
three liberal professions, Law, Medicine, and Theology. Whoever has a
claim to distinguished honour from any one of the three, has a just
encomium pronounced upon his services by the temporary President of that
particular fabrick, in which he is entitled to such grateful
remembrance." "Alas!" I replied, with a murmur that I could not
suppress, "the Man whose well-deserved praises I most anxiously expected
to hear in this region, belonged not to any one of these eminent classes
in human life--he had no profession but that of Humanity."
"Be patient," said the sweetest of my aetherial guides, with a rebuke
that was softened by a smile of indulgence! "Let not your zeal for the
honour of an individual, however meritorious, make you unjust, or
insensible, to the merit of others! Assume the temper of this region,
where praise is distributed by equity and affection, but where prejudice
and partiality are not allowed to intrude!--Let us advance," continued
my monitor, with an encouraging movement of her hand; "it is time that I
should lead you to the nearest assembly."
I obeyed with reverential silence; and as I passed the vestibule of the
majestic edifice, my heart panted with an aweful expectation of
beholding the shades of Solon, Lycurgus, and other departed Legislators,
from the various nations of the world. I was chearfully surprized by a
very different spectacle.
The capacious structure was filled with a concourse of living mortals,
lively, yet respectable in their appearance, evidently belonging to
many countries; but all, as I perceived by their habits, connected with
the Law. Throughout all the multitude I heard no sound of dissention or
debate: but over all there reigned an air of intelligence and sympathy,
while all were hushed in silent expectance, and eager attention, with
their eyes directed to an elevated tribunal:--On this a personage was
sitting, whose majestic figure I immediately recollected. His
countenance is marked with that austerity and grandeur, which are the
external characteristicks of Law herself. His heart, as those who know
it ultimately declare, expresses the tender and beneficent influence of
that Power, who is the acknowledged parent of security and comfort. With
a voice that pervaded the most distant recesses of the extensive dome,
and in tones that sunk deep into the bosom of every auditor, he
pronounced the following oration:
"After passing many years of life in the painful investigation of human
offences, it is with peculiar satisfaction that I find myself
commissioned to commemorate, in this Assembly, a character of virtue
without example--a character, at once so meek and so sublime, that, if a
feeling spirit had been poisoned with misanthropy from too close a
contemplation of mortal crimes, this character alone might serve as an
antidote to the word of mental distempers, and awaken the most callous
and sarcastic mind to confess the dignity of our Nature, and the
beneficence of our God. In stating to you the merits of HOWARD, I might
expatiate with delight on the various qualities of this incomparable
man; I might trace his progress through the different periods of a life
always singular and always instructive. I could not be checked by any
fear of overstepping the modesty of Truth in the celebration of Virtue,
so solid and so extensive, that the malevolence of Envy could not
diminish its weight, the fondness of Enthusiasm could not amplify its
effects. But I must not forget that there are professional limits to my
discourse. It is incumbent on me to confine myself to a single object,
and to dwell only on those public services, that peculiarly endear the
name of Howard to the liberal and enlightened community in which I have
the honour to preside.
"It was in the capacity of a Minister to Justice, that the pure spirit,
whom it is my glory to praise, first conceived the idea of those
unrivaled labours that have rendered his memory a treasure to mankind.
In discharging a temporary office, that exposed to him the condition of
criminals, he was led to meditate on the evils which had grievously
contaminated the operations of Justice. He perceived that Law herself,
like one of her most illustrious Delegates (I mean the immortal Bacon),
was grossly injured by the secret and sordid enormities of her menial
servants: that Captivity and Coercion, those necessary supporters of her
power, instead of producing good, often gave birth to mischiefs more
flagrant, and more fatal, than those which they were employed to
correct. He found, even in the prisons of his own humane and enlightened
country, an accumulation of the most hideous abuses: he found them not
nurseries of penitence and amendment, but schools of vice and impiety;
or dens of filth, famine, and disease: not the seats of just and
salutary correction and punishment, but the strong holds of cruelty and
extortion. The irons of the prisoner, which he only beheld, entered into
his soul, and awakened unextinguishable energy in a spirit, of which
companion and fortitude were the divine characteristicks. In the noble
emotions of pity for the oppressed, and of zeal for the honour and
interest of civilized society, he conceived perhaps the sublimest design
that ever occupied and exalted the mind of man, the design to search and
to purify the polluted stream of Penal Justice, not only throughout his
own country, but through the various nations of the world. How low, how
little, are the grandest enterprizes of Heroic Ambition, when compared
with this magnanimous pursuit! How frivolous and vain are the highest
aims of Fancy and Science, when contrasted with a purpose so
beneficently great! But, marvellous as the magnitude of HOWARD'S
enterprise appears, on the slightest view that magnitude becomes doubly
striking, when we contemplate at the same time the many circumstances
that might either allure or deter him from the prosecution of his idea.
Consider him as a private gentleman, possessed of ease and independence,
accustomed to employ and amuse his mind in retired study and
philosophical speculation; arrived at that period of life, when the
springs of activity and enterprize in the human frame have begun to
lose their force! consider that his health, even in youth, had appeared
unequal to common fatigue! his stature low! his deportment humble! his
voice almost effeminate! Such was the wonderful being, who relinquished
the retirement, the tranquillity, the comforts, that he loved and
enjoyed, to embark in labours at which the most hardy might tremble; to
plunge in perils from which the most resolute might recede without a
diminution of honour. Under all these apparent disadvantages,
unsummoned, unauthorized by any Prince, unexcited by any popular
invitation, he resolved to investigate all the abuses of imprisonment;
to visit the abodes of wretchedness and infection; and to prove himself
the friend of the friendless, in every country that the limits of his
advanced life would allow him to examine. Against such an enterprize,
projected by such an individual, what forcible arguments might be urged,
not only by every selfish passion, but even by that prudence, and that
reason, which are allowed to regulate an elevated mind! How plausibly
did Friendship exclaim to Howard, 'Your projects are unquestionably
noble; but they are above the execution of any individual: you are
unarmed with authority; you have the wish to do great good, but the
power of doing little! Consider the probable issue of the
undertaking!--You will see a few hapless wretches, and tell their
condition to the inattentive world; perhaps perish yourself from
contagion, before you have time to tell it; and leave your afflicted
friends to lament your untimely fate, and the ungrateful Publick to
deride your temerity!' What force of intellect, what dignity of soul
were required to prevent a mortal from yielding to remonstrances so
engaging! The divine energy of Genius and of Virtue enabled HOWARD to
foresee, that the sanctity of his pursuit would supply him with strength
and powers far superior to all human authority:--His piercing mind
comprehended that there are enormities of such a nature, that to survey
and to reveal them is to effect their correction.--He felt that his
sincere compassion for the oppressed, and his ardent desire to promote
perfect justice, would serve him as a perpetual antidote against the
poison of fear.--He felt that in the darkness of dungeons he should want
no associates, no guards to defend him against the outrages of detected
extortion, or suspicious brutality.--He felt, that as his purpose was
heavenly, the powers of Heaven would be displayed in his support; that
iniquity and oppression would not dare to lift a hand against him,
though they knew it was the business of his life to annihilate their
sway in their most secret dominion. How admirably did the progress of
his travels evince and justify the pure and enlightened confidence of
his spirit! All dangers, all difficulties, vanish before his gentleness,
his regularity, his perseverance. Insolence and ferocity seem to turn,
at his approach, into docility and respect. Every hardship he endures,
every step he advances, in his wide and laborious career of Beneficence,
instead of impairing his strength, invigorates his frame; instead of
diminishing his influence, increases the utility of his conduct, by
making the world acquainted with the sanctity of his character. Witness,
ye various regions of the earth! with what surprize, delight, and
veneration, ye beheld an unarmed, and unassuming traveller instructing
you in the sublime science of mitigating human misery, and giving you a
matchless example of tenderness and magnanimity! O, England! thou
generous country! ever enamoured of glory, contemplate in this, the most
perfect of thy illustrious sons; contemplate those virtues, and that
honour, in which thy parental spirit may most happily exult!--What
spectacle can be more flattering to thy native, thy honest pride, than
to behold the proudest potentates of distant nations listening with
pleasure to a private Englishman; and learning, from his researches, how
to relieve the most injured of their subjects! how to abolish the
enormities of perverted Justice! To form a complete account of the good
arising to the world from the life and labours of Howard, would be a
task beyond the limits of any human mind: an exact statement of the
benefits he has conferred upon society, could be rendered only by the
attendant Spirit whom Providence commissioned to watch over him, and who
might discern, by the powers of supernatural vision, what pregnant
sources of public calamity he crushed in the seed, and what future
virtues, in various individuals, he may draw into the service of mankind
by the attraction of his example.
"Of good, more immediately visible, which his exertions produced, there
is abundant evidence in his own country. In the wide circle of his
foreign excursion, what nation, what city, does not bear some
conspicuous traces of his intrepid and indefatigable beneficence! Of the
astonishing length to which his zeal and perseverance extended, we have
the most ingenuous and satisfactory narration in those singularly
meritorious volumes which he has given to the world. In these we behold
the minute detail of labours to which there is nothing similar, or
second, in the history of public virtue; and for which there could be no
adequate reward but in the beatitude of Heaven. An eloquent Enthusiast,
whose genius was nearly allied to frenzy, has expressed a desire to
present himself before the tribunal of the Almighty Judge, with a
volume in his hand, in which he had recorded his own thoughts and
actions: if such an idea could be suitable to the littleness of man, if
it could become any mortal of faculties so limited to make such an
offering to the great Fountain of all intelligence, that mortal must
assuredly be Howard: for where could we find another individual, not
professedly inspired, who might present to his Maker a record of labours
so eminently directed by Piety and Virtue! a book, addressed to mankind,
without insulting their weakness, or flattering their passions! a book,
whose great object was to benefit the world, without seeking from it any
kind of reward! a book, in which the genuine modesty of the Writer is
equal to his unexampled beneficence! The mind of Howard was singularly
and sublimely free from the common and dangerous passion for applause:
that passion which, though taken altogether, it is certainly beneficial
to the interests of mankind, yet frequently communicates inquietude and
unsteadiness to the pursuits of Genius and Virtue. As human praise was
never the object of his ambition, so he has nobly soared above it. There
appear, in different ages upon the Earth, certain elevated spirits, who,
by the sublimity of their conceptions, and the magnanimity of their
conduct, attain a degree of glory which can never be reached by the
keenest followers of Fame--They seek not panegyricks; and panegyricks
can add nothing to their honour. The Eulogies have perished which were
devoted by the luxuriant genius of Tully, and by the laconic spirit of
Brutus, to the public virtue of Cato; yet the name of that illustrious
Roman is still powerful in the world, and excites in every cultivated
mind, an animating idea of independent integrity. The name of Howard has
superior force, and a happier effect. It is a sound, at which the
strings of humanity will vibrate with exultation in many millions of
hearts. Through the various nations that he visited, the mere echo of
his name will be sufficient to awaken that noblest sensibility, which at
once softens and elevates the soul. Every warm hearted and worthy
individual who mentions Howard will glow with an honest, a generous
satisfaction, in feeling himself the fellow-creature of such a man.
Wherever the elegant arts are established, they will contend in raising
memorials to his honour. Indeed, the globe itself may be considered as
his Mausoleum; and the inhabitants of every prison it contains, as
groups of living statues that commemorate his virtue. There is no class
of mankind by whom his memory ought not to be cherished, because all are
interested in those evils (so pernicious to society! so dangerous to
life!) which he was ever labouring to lessen or exterminate. It might be
wished, that different communities should separately devise some
different tribute of respect to him whose character and conduct is so
interesting to all: not for the sake of multiplying vain and useless
offerings to the dead, but to impress with more energy and extent his
ennobling remembrance on the heart and soul of the living. It is hardly
possible to present too frequently to the human mind the image of a man
who lived only to do good. I mean not merely such a resemblance of his
form as Art may execute with materials almost as perishable as the image
of human clay, but such an impression of his soul as may have a more
lasting influence on the life and conduct of his admirers, such as,
diffusing among them a portion of his spirit, may in some measure
perpetuate his existence.
"By this community, I am confident, such public honours will be paid to
HOWARD, as may be most suitable to the peculiar interest which it
becomes us to take in his glory. What these honours shall be is a point
to be settled by this liberal and enlightened Assembly, which assuredly
will not fail to remember that he suggested to Legal Authority her
omissions and defects with the modest and endearing tenderness of a
Friend; that he laboured in the service of Justice with that
intelligence, fortitude, and zeal, which her votaries cannot too warmly
admire, or too gratefully acknowledge."
The President arose as he thus ended his speech; and the members of the
Assembly seemed beginning to confer among themselves; but what debates
ensued, or what measure was adopted, I am unable to tell, as my
visionary Guides immediately hurried me to the adjoining Temple.
This second structure, though less extensive and less solid than the
first, was more attractive to the eye, as it abounded with scientifical
and diversified decorations. The Assembly consisted of men, who appeared
to me equally remarkable for keenness of intellect and elegance of
manners. The seat of pre eminence among them was filled by a person who
possessed in a very uncommon degree these two valuable qualities, so
happily conducive to medical utility and medical distinction. Though
left a young orphan, without patrimony, and obliged to struggle with
early disadvantages, he raised himself by meritorious exertion to the
head of a profession in which opulence is generally the just attendant
on knowledge and reputation. But neither opulence, nor his long
intercourse with sickness and death, have hardened the native tenderness
of his heart; and I had lately known him shed tears of regret on the
untimely fate of an amiable patient, whom his consummate skill and
attention were unable to save.
Thus strongly prepossessed in his favour, I was delighted to observe
that he was preparing to address the Assembly in the moment we entered.
My celestial Guides smiled on each other in perceiving my satisfaction;
and being placed by them instantaneously in a commodious situation, I
heard the following discourse; which the character I have described
delivered with an ease and refined acuteness peculiar to himself, never
raising his voice above the pitch of polite and spirited conversation:
"I am persuaded, that every individual to whom I have now the happiness
of speaking, will readily agree with me in this sentiment, that we
cannot possibly do ourselves more honour as a Fraternity than by
considering HOWARD as an Associate: assuredly, there is no class of men
who may more justly presume to cherish his name and character with a
fraternal affection. In proportion as we are accustomed to contemplate,
to pity, and to counteract, the sufferings of Nature, the more are we
enabled and inclined to estimate, to love, and to revere, a being so
compassionate and beneficent. If Physicians are, what I once heard them
called by a lively friend, the Soldiers of Humanity, engaged in a
perpetual, and too often, alas! unsuccessful conflict against the
enemies of life; HOWARD is not only entitled to high rank in our corps,
but he is the very Caesar of this hard, this perilous, and, let me add,
this most honourable warfare. Perhaps the ambition of the great Roman
Commander, insatiate and sanguinary as it was, did not contribute more
to the torment and destruction of the human race, than the charity of
the English Philanthropist has contributed to its relief and
preservation. Of this we are very certain, the splendid and
indefatigable Hero of Slaughter and Vain-glory did not traverse a more
extensive field, nor expose himself more courageously to personal
danger, than our meek and unostentatious Hero of Medical Benevolence. In
point of true magnanimity, I apprehend the spirit of Caesar would very
willingly confess, that his own celebrated attempts to reduce Gaul and
Britain were low and little achievements, when compared to the
unexampled efforts by which Howard endeavoured to exterminate or subdue
(those enemies more terrific) the Gaol Fever, and the Plague.