JOHN NEWTON by Bernard Martin: 365 pages—cheap edition, 7/6d. Published by William Heinemann. Biographies have an attraction peculiar to themselves. John Newton’s is no exception. The eventful life of this extraordinary man is treated in considerable detail. We first get a glimpse of him at his mother’s knees receiving the seed of instruction which is to germinate so many years later. On the untimely death of his mother we watch this youth, as a ship without a compass, sail into the rough seas of life. He is enticed by those who say “Cast in thy lot among us,” and soon excels all his companions in impiety. The only thing which has any power to check his recklessness is his attachment to Mary Catlett; and, ironically enough, it is this fondness which leads him into such difficult circumstances in his employment. To see Mary he steals off from H.M.S. Harwich. For this offence he is publicly flogged on board the H.M.S. Harwich and finally dismissed from the Navy. He now joins a slave-trading ship. On this ship he becomes acquainted with a slave-trader, Mr. Clow, to whom he joins himself much in the same way that the prodigal son joined himself to the citizen. Clow treats Newton no better than he treats his slaves. The only recreation Newton now enjoys is his working out of Euclid (Geometry) by means of drawing his diagrams on the sands. Eventually Newton is freed from Clow and joins another slave ship to return to England. Of this voyage he writes, “Four or five of us one evening sat upon the deck to see who could hold out
longest in drinking geneva and rum alternately . . .” A violent sea brings the ship into danger and Newton records, “I went to speak with the captain, who was busied elsewhere; and just as I was returning from him, I said, almost without meaning, ‘If this will not do, the Lord have mercy on us.’ This (though spoken with little reflection) was the first desire I had breathed for mercy for the space of many years.” As our biographer adds—”Those few words, spoken almost without meaning marks the beginning of a change in Newton’s life.” The remaining (and the greater) part of the book delineates on Newton’s life, first as a Christian captain of a slave-trading ship, then as a Christian Tide Surveyor at Liverpool, and finally as a Christian minister. We are introduced into a wide circle of Newton’s friends, among whom are the celebrated Cowper and Wilberforce. The correspondence between Newton and his friends, which forms no small part of the book, is revealing and full of good sound common sense. The author has gleaned from much hitherto unpublished material regarding Newton. The book is marred by one thing, namely the author’s lack of sympathy with and understanding of true Christianity. It will suffice to quote here a few of his statements. There is the bold assumption which the author makes when he says, “No one in the twentieth century would accept in detail the beliefs that Newton held.” He also says, “Newton’s story is the story of every man but with the experiences intensified.” Again, he belittles eighteenth century orthodox Christianity thus, “To orthodox Christians the books of the Bible were all alike the Word of God . . . consequently the theology Newton learnt was sub-Christian.”—A. W. MacD.