of unceasing application. He studied thirteen hours a day, and left behind him fourteen hundred miscellaneous writings, all numbered, paged, and indexed by his own hand. His "Resolutions," his "Life of Brainerd," and his treatises on practical and experimental theology, are among the most instructive books ever printed, while they leave an indelible impression of his deep conscientiousness and piety. It is, however, as a metaphysician, or as a metaphysico-theologian, that he claims a first place among English writers. Mackintosh, Stewart, Hall, Chalmers. Hamilton, all agree to do him homage; and though they differ from him in one or other of his favourite speculations, and some of them even dread parts of his theology, there is but one opinion on the force of intellect and simplicity of purpose with which he has defended his creed. Religiously or theologically, Edwards is known as the advocate of Calvinism; still more, of a spiritual, earnest religion, which religious men of all parties approve. His treatise on "the Affections," on "Original Sin," and most of his sermons, are full of sublime thoughts; "his dullest and most tedious pages glittering," as has been said, "like the sands of the Pactolus, with scattered gold." Ethically, he maintains that virtue consists essentially in holy feeling; that love of excellence, as excellence, is the chief element in it; and that God, who is at once the source and the model of all virtue, loves himself supremely, and seeks ever his own glory, chiefly because that glory is the gratifying of his nature, and that nature is purity, holiness, and love. By his disciples, Bellamy and Hopkins, and especially by the former, this doctrine was carried to an extreme. The advocates ended by practically denying the name of virtue to any act, however conformed to law, which was not done from a distinct feeling of that love of excellence which is the essence of holiness. As the doctrine was held by Edwards, and apart from the objectionable scholastic phraseology he employed, it seems to us, not all the truth indeed, but still essentially true. Edwards' views on these questions may be seen in his treatise "On the Nature of true Virtue," and "On God's Chief End in Creation." Metaphysically, he is best known as the champion of philosophic necessity, especially of that doctrine as consistent with the freedom of the will, rightly defined, and human responsibility. That the will is influenced by motives; that the force of motives depends much on character; that a self-determining power in the will, independent of motives, is either absurd or vicious, inconceivable or wrong; that men are biassed in favour of evil, and still responsible; that men are necessary agents, and yet moral—he strenuously maintains. Whether we hold that the will has the mysterious power of forming its decisions not only against what ought to be motives, but against what are such, as many of Edwards' opponents held—or whether we hold, as Sir W. Hamilton seems disposed to hold, that the doctrine of causation does not apply to the human soul, and therefore Edwards' reasoning, though irrefragable on his own supposition, is entirely beside the mark and inapplicable to the case—it is impossible to withhold from Edwards' treatise the praise of being the standard book on his side, and one of the acutest arguments ever framed. Euclid's elements contain nothing terser or more conclusive than some of his demonstrations, while for a kind of logical wit, if such a contradictory expression be allowed, there is nothing more startling or pleasurable in the happiest combinations of Lamb or Smith. There is, in truth, no finer book of mental discipline to be found in the English tongue. An edition of his works was published in octavo at Leeds in 1811; another in 8 vols., by Dr. Austin, in 1809; another by his descendant, S. E. Dwight, in 10 vols., in 1830; besides the edition in two volumes, edited by Henry Rogers, and published in 1834. It is among the curiosities of biography that his son and namesake, Dr. Jonathan Edwards, was, like his father, tutor in the college where he had been educated, was dismissed from his subsequent pastorate on account of his fidelity and strictness, settled again in a retired position, was elected president of a college, and died soon after entering upon his office, and at about the same age.—J. A. L.
EDWARDS, Richard, a musician and poet, was born in Somersetshire about 1523, and died in 1566. He is said by Wood to have been a scholar of Corpus Christi college in Oxford, but in his early years he was employed in some department about the court. This circumstance appears from one of his poems in the Paradise of Dainty Devises, a miscellany, which contains many of his poetical effusions. He was at one time a senior student of Christ Church in Oxford, then newly founded. In the British museum there is a small set of manuscript poems signed with his initials, addressed to some of the beauties of the courts of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. Hence we may conjecture he did not remain long at the university. Having first been a member of Lincoln's inn, he was, in the year 1561, constituted a gentleman of the royal chapel by Queen Elizabeth, and master of the singing boys there. He had received his musical education while at Oxford, under George Etheridge. Edwards is the author of two dramas which have descended to posterity, and in all probability of others which have perished. His first known production, "Damon and Pythias," would appear to have been acted in 1564, but it had probably been composed long before. Both with queen and nobles, with court and university, it was evidently a favourite. Another performance, "Palemon and Arcyte," which was made to entertain Elizabeth at Christ Church, Oxford, about two months before the author's death, was still more admired. When the performance was concluded, the queen sent for him, spoke warmly of the gratification which the piece had given her, and promised him more substantial marks of her favour. Twine designates Edwards—
" The flower of our realme
And phœnix of our age."
and refers to his plays as
" Full fit for princes' ears."
Puttenham, in like manner, gives the palm to Edwards for comedy and interlude, the term interlude being here of wide extent; for Edwards, besides that he was a writer of regular dramas, appears to have been a contriver of masques, and a composer of music and poetry for pageantry. "In a word," says Warton, "he united all those arts and accomplishments which minister to popular pleasantry. He was the first fiddle, the most fashionable sonnetier, the readiest rhymer, and the most facetious mimic of the court; and his popularity seems to have arisen from those pleasing talents of which no specimens could be transmitted to posterity, but which eminently influenced his partial contemporaries in his favour." Edwards' musical abilities are favourably known to the public by the charming part-song—miscalled a madrigal in modern programmes—"In Going to my Lonely Bed." Many others of his part-song and anthems are preserved in the music-book of Thomas Mulliner, an inedited MS. in the possession of the writer.—E. F., R.
EDWARDS, Thomas, an English presbyterian of the seventeenth century, and author of the celebrated work entitled "Gangræna," was a student of Trinity college, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1605 and 1609. He afterwards took orders; and though, according to his own account, a puritan at heart, he continued in the Church of England till the rupture between Charles I. and the parliament, when he openly professed himself a presbyterian. He had at first written and spoken in favour of the popular cause; but when the independents began to acquire a power that might one day become supreme, he turned all his energies against that party, and attacked it in a succession of highly vituperative writings. The most celebrated of these is that entitled "Gangræna," the three parts of which appeared at three separate times. In this work he exposes the errors of the independents and of the sectaries, after a manner which must be pronounced perfectly unsuited to religious controversy. His invective indeed rises to such a pitch of fury as to make one question the truthfulness of his allegations. He was obliged to take refuge in Holland from the resentment of his adversaries. There he died, August 24, 1647. He has described himself as "a plain, open-hearted man, who hated tricks, reserves, and designs;" but it is extremely difficult to reconcile that degree of rancour and abuse which we find in his works with a sincere love of truth.—R. M., A.
EDWARDS, Thomas, poet and critic, was born in or near the city of London in 1699. He was bred to the law, but soon turned from legal to literary pursuits. His reputation as a critic is intimately associated with the works of Shakspeare, of whom he was an enthusiastic admirer. His first publication was "A Letter to the Author of a late Epistolary Dedication, addressed to Mr. Warburton." This pamphlet was followed in 1747 by a "Supplement to Mr. Warburton's Edition of Shakspeare," of which a third edition appeared in the following year, entitled "The Canons of Criticism, and a Glossary, being a Supplement to Mr. Warburton's edition of Shakspeare, collected from the notes in that celebrated work, and proper to be bound
