Soame Jenyns | |
|---|---|
 Portrait from 1776 | |
| Born | (1704-01-01)1 January 1704 London, England |
| Died | 18 December 1787(1787-12-18) (aged 83) London, England |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, politician |
| Spouses | |
| Father | Roger Jenyns |
Soame Jenyns (1 January 1704 – 18 December 1787) was an English writer and Member of Parliament. He was an early advocate of the ethical consideration of animals.
He was the eldest son of SirRoger Jenyns and his second wife Elizabeth Soame, daughter of Sir Peter Soame. He was born in London, and was educated atSt John's College, Cambridge.[1] In 1742, he was chosen M.P. forCambridgeshire, in which his property (Bottisham Hall, which he inherited from his father in 1740) was situated, and he afterwards sat for the borough ofDunwich and the town ofCambridge. From 1755 to 1780 he was one of the commissioners of theBoard of Trade. He was elected as a Bailiff to the board of theBedford Level Corporation for 1748–1769 and 1771–1787.[2]
For the measure of literary repute which he enjoyed during his life Jenyns was indebted as much to his wealth and social standing as to his accomplishments and talents, though both were considerable. His poetical works, theArt of Dancing (1727)[3][4] andMiscellanies (1770), contain many passages graceful and lively though occasionally verging on licence.[5][clarification needed]
The first of his prose works was hisFree Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1756). This essay was severely criticized on its appearance, especially bySamuel Johnson in theLiterary Magazine. Johnson condemned the book as a slight and shallow attempt to solve one of the most difficult of moral problems. Jenyns, a gentle and amiable man in the main, was extremely irritated by his review. He put forth a second edition of his work, prefaced by a vindication, and tried to take vengeance on Johnson after his death by a sarcastic epitaph:[6]
Here lies poor Johnson. Reader, have a care,
Tread lightly, lest you rouse a sleeping bear;
Religious, moral, generous, and humane
He was—but self-sufficient, rude, and vain;
Ill-bred and over-bearing in dispute,
A scholar and a Christian—yet a brute.
In 1776 Jenyns published hisView of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion. Though at one period of his life he had affected a kind ofdeistic scepticism, he had now returned to orthodoxy, and there seems no reason to doubt his sincerity, questioned at the time, in defending Christianity on the ground of its total agreement with the principles of human reason. The work was praised for its literary merits.[5]
Jenyns publishedDisquisitions on Several Subjects in 1782. In "Disquisition II", Jenyns argued, using thegreat chain of being, that animals should be viewed in the same way that humans would want to be viewed by God.[7] He also asserted that: "We are unable to give life, and therefore ought not wantonly to take it away from the meanest insect, without sufficient reason; they all receive it from the same benevolent hand as ourselves, and have therefore an equal right to enjoy it."[8]
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He married twice, but left no progeny:[9]
Jenyns died in London of a fever on 18 December 1787 and was buried at thechurch of the Holy Trinity, Bottisham.[11] As he died without progeny, his heir was his cousinGeorge Leonard Jenyns.
A collected edition of the works of Jenyns appeared in 1790, with a biography byCharles Nalson Cole. There are several references to him inJames Boswell'sJohnson.
Carl L. Becker describes Jenyns's take on the American Revolution inThe Eve of the Revolution (1918) as follows:[12]
Mr. Soame Jenyns, a writer of verse and member of the Board of Trade, who in a leisure hour had recently turned his versatile mind to the consideration of colonial rights with the happiest results. In twenty-three very small pages he had disposed of the "Objections to the Taxation of Our American Colonies" in a manner highly satisfactory to himself and doubtless also to the average reading Briton, who understood constitutional questions best when they were "briefly considered," and when they were humorously expounded in pamphlets that could be had for sixpence. ... The heart of the question was the proposition that there should be no taxation without representation; upon which principle it was necessary to observe only that many individuals in England, such as copyholders and leaseholders, and many communities, such as Manchester and Birmingham, were taxed in Parliament without being represented there. "... are they only Englishmen when they solicit protection, but not Englishmen when taxes are required to enable this country to protect them?" As for "liberty," the word had so many meanings, "having within a few years been used as a synonymous term for Blasphemy, Bawdy, Treason, Libels, Strong Beer, and Cyder," that Mr. Jenyns could not presume to say what it meant.
Jenyns has been cited as an example of an Anglicanutilitarian.[13]
Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Jenyns, Soame".Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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Quotations related toSoame Jenyns at Wikiquote| Parliament of Great Britain | ||
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| Preceded by | Member for Cambridgeshire 1741–1754 With:Samuel Shepheard 1741–1747 Viscount Royston 1747–1754 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member for Dunwich 1754–1758 With:Sir Jacob Downing, Bt | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member for Cambridge 1758–1780 With:Hon. Charles Cadogan 1758–1776 Benjamin Keene 1776–1780 | Succeeded by |
