James Hervey (26 February 1714 – 25 December 1758) was an English clergyman and writer.

Life

He was born at

Hardingstone Hardingstone is a village in Northamptonshire, England. It is on the southern edge of Northampton, and now forms a suburb of the town. It is about from the town centre. The Newport Pagnell road (the B526, formerly part of the A50) separates ...

, near

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

, and was educated at the grammar school of Northampton, and at

Lincoln College, Oxford Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, the ...

. Here he came under the influence of

John Wesley John Wesley (; 2 March 1791) was an English people, English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The soci ...

and the Oxford

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

s, especially since he was a member of the

Holy Club The "Holy Club" was an organization at Christ Church, Oxford, formed in 1729 by brothers John and Charles Wesley, who later contributed to the formation of the Methodist Church. The brothers and associates, including George Whitefield, met for pr ...

. Ultimately, however, while retaining his regard for the men and his sympathy with their religious aims, he adopted a thoroughly

Calvinistic Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Calv ...

creed, and resolved to remain in the

Anglican Church Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...

. Having taken orders in 1737, he held several

curacies A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy ...

, and in 1752 succeeded his father in the family livings of

Weston Favell Weston Favell is an area near the eastern end of Northampton, and is part of Park ward of the Borough of Northampton. Location Since the Industrial Revolution and the 20th century, the town of Northampton has grown closer and closer to the villa ...

and

Collingtree Collingtree is a village and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England. It is part of the Northampton built-up area. Location and context The village is about from Northampton town centre, close to the ...

. He was never robust, but was a good parish priest and a zealous writer.

Works

His style is often bombastic, but he displays a rare appreciation of natural beauty, and his simple piety made him many friends. His earliest work, ''Meditations and Contemplations'', said to have been modelled on

Robert Boyle Robert Boyle (; 25 January 1627 – 31 December 1691) was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, alchemist and inventor. Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the founders of ...

's ''Occasional Reflexions on various Subjects'', within fourteen years passed through as many editions. ''Theron and Aspasio, or a series of Letters upon the most important and interesting Subjects'', which appeared in 1755, and was equally well received, called forth some adverse criticism even from Calvinists, on account of tendencies which were considered to lead to

antinomianism Antinomianism (Ancient Greek: ἀντί 'anti''"against" and νόμος 'nomos''"law") is any view which rejects laws or legalism and argues against moral, religious or social norms (Latin: mores), or is at least considered to do so. The term ha ...

, and was strongly objected to by Wesley in his ''Preservative against unsettled Notions in Religion''. Besides carrying into England the theological disputes to which the ''Marrow of Modern Divinity'' had given rise in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

(the

Marrow controversy The Marrow Controversy was a Scottish ecclesiastical dispute occasioned by the republication in 1718 of ''The Marrow of Modern Divinity'' (originally published in two parts in London in 1645 and 1649 by "E. F.", generally believed to be a pseud ...

), it also led to what is known as the

Sandemanian The Glasites or Glassites were a small Christian church founded in about 1730 in Scotland by John Glas.John Glas preached supremacy of God's word (Bible) over allegiance to Church and state to his congregation in Tealing near Dundee in July 1725 ...

controversy as to the nature of saving faith. A new and complete edition of his ''Works'', with a memoir, appeared in 1797. See also ''Collection of the Letters of James Hervey'', to which is prefixed an account of his ''Life and Death'', by

Thomas Birch Thomas Birch (23 November 17059 January 1766) was an English historian. Life He was the son of Joseph Birch, a coffee-mill maker, and was born at Clerkenwell. He preferred study to business but, as his parents were Quakers, he did not go to t ...

(1760).

William_Blake_Epitome_of_James_Hervey%E2%80%99s_%E2%80%98Meditations_among_the_Tombs_1820-25

Influence

Hervey had a lasting impact on art through

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

, who was an admirer of his. Blake painted ''Epitome of James Hervey's Meditations among the Tombs'' between 1820 and 1825. Hervey is also mentioned in Blake's work as one of the holy guards to the 'four-fold gate', and his influence on Blake's poem ''

The Tyger "The Tyger" is a poem by the English poet William Blake, published in 1794 as part of his ''Songs of Experience'' collection and rising to prominence in the romantic period. The poem is one of the most anthologised in the English literary cano ...

'' has also been noted. In addition to this, the sombre and sweeping tone of his ''Meditations Among The Tombs'' (for example, "the dreadful pleasure inspired by gazing at fallen monuments and mouldering tombs") has led to his being placed amongst the 18th century "

Graveyard School The "Graveyard Poets", also termed "Churchyard Poets", were a number of pre-Romantic poets of the 18th century characterised by their gloomy meditations on mortality, "skulls and coffins, epitaphs and worms" elicited by the presence of the graveya ...

" of poets, rendering his work an important influence on

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whigs (British political party), Whig politician. He had Strawb ...

's "

The Castle of Otranto ''The Castle of Otranto'' is a novel by Horace Walpole. First published in 1764, it is generally regarded as the first gothic novel. In the second edition, Walpole applied the word 'Gothic' to the novel in the subtitle – ''A Gothic Story''. Se ...

" of 1764 and consequently, the entire genre of

Gothic literature Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ea ...

and the later

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

which the genre fuelled.

References

Attribution

External links

Online edition of Hervey's ''Meditations and Contemplations''Online edition of Hervey's ''Theron and Aspasio''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hervey, James 1714 births 1758 deaths People from Hardingstone Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford 18th-century English Anglican priests People educated at Northampton School for Boys Early modern Christian devotional writers