Away with Compulsion!
John Wesley called for a world in which no one was forced to go against his conscience or to serve against his will.
1774
King George III 1760-1820
John Wesley called for a world in which no one was forced to go against his conscience or to serve against his will.
1774
King George III 1760-1820
In Thoughts on Slavery (1774), Church of England clergyman John Wesley made an impassioned appeal for liberty. Of course his primary goal was to secure the release of those held in captivity as slaves; but his vision went beyond that, to a world in which no one forced others to do anything against their conscience and their will.
LIBERTY is the right of every human creature, as soon as he breathes the vital air: and no human law can deprive him of that right which he derives from the law of nature.
If, therefore, you have any regard to justice, to say nothing of mercy, or of the revealed law of God, render unto all their due. Give liberty to whom liberty is due, to every child of man, to every partaker of human nature. Let none serve you but by his own act and deed, by his own voluntary choice. Away with all whips, all chains, all compulsion! Be gentle toward all men, and see that you invariably do unto every one, as you would he should do unto you.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.