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Traditionally, Christopher Smart has been represented as a mystical and eccentric poet, a colorful visionary of only peripheral importance to our understanding of eighteenth-century literature. This study challenges that view, offering a reassessment of Smart's work and examining the age in which he wrote and his place in it. Guest reappraises his religious poetry in the context of theories of language and natural philosophy, as well as in the context of a vast range of writing--from private devotions and sermons, to hymns and biblical criticism--demonstrating the pervasive and complex significance of religion in the period.

"Even to-day in Ogdensburg, they tell the story of George Parish and his lady, the Contessina Vespucci, who lived secluded in Parish's great house, shunned by the virtuous countryside. For the romance of Parish and Ameriga Vespucci is a true tale. She had come to this country in the 'forties, seeking land and citizenship in memory of her famous ancestor, Amerigo Vespucci. New York, Boston, Washington were set agog with her charms. Then suddenly, collapse!--and an ugly whisper of an indiscreet love affair in Europe. Small wonder then that she turned for a brief season to John Van Buren--Prince John, the son of the President, whose recklessness was the talk of everyone. But there was a man she had met on her way to America, and between that man and Ameriga no Prince John could interpose himself"--Dust jacket.