66

ing canvassed?-and as the ignorant are generally found to be the most presuming, they will not surrender their right to any consciousness of weakness in the exercise of it: this right therefore is usually made the medium of prejudice; and the eligibility of the candidate, either merges in the want of judgment on the part of the elector, or is made an instrument of party." “And yet, Sir," observed Mr. L- 's friends, "you will find that this elective plan is pursued in the Kirk of Scotland with considerable success, as to the object of procuring an able minister," "I beg your pardon," replied Mr. S―, the election is in the Kirk, confined to a certain number of elders; or the person is first selected by the elders and returned to the congregation for their sanction; a procedure which has nothing of the character of these popular elections in our church, since in these, no previous selection whatever is made; but the balance of votes settles the matter entirely; and I think you will perceive, that this opens the door to every evil, which prejudice and party can produce: two principles of action in my humble opinion, which ought not to have any ascendancy in a decision of so much importance, as that which concerns the spiritual interests of man."

I here took up Mr. S's direction of argument, and observed, that if principles were to be taken into the question, I should think those only should be acknowledged as giving a candidate a claim to our consideration, which were consistent with the doctrines of the church to which he professes to belong.

"Yet," said Mr. S, "in such popular elections, how seldom does it occur, that this just distinction is kept in view; nay, in how many instances do we see it purposely opposed, and the very minister who ought not to be elected, is voted for by every description of Dissenters, Calvinists and Socinians, Baptists and Wesleians, merely because his doctrine is not conformable to the cause he has pledged himself to support; and it is really a melancholy evidence of the preponderance with which party weighs against principle, when we witness the latter surrendered to the former, by a minister who having little other chance of church preferment, will by a time-serving motive, most unworthy of his professional dignity, or his personal integrity, court the dissenting

interest (if most likely to bring him in) by such modifications of his doctrine, as are totally incompatible with the unity of the established church.—And hence it has not unfrequently occurred, that the morning sermon and that of the afternoon, have been completely at variance with each other, as to those essentials of doctrinal and preceptive instruction which the ministry of our establishment are most solemnly bound, before God and man, to preserve unmutilated and unperverted." "This is true," I observed, “but the incumbent possesses a veto upon such occasions, which he may insist upon if he please." "He may, indeed, use his veto," rejoined Mr. S "but what's the consequence? he directly becomes embroiled with his parishioners, and as the election is carried by a majority,of course the majority will become malcontents; and I cannot help inferring, that there must be something radically wrong in that indulgence, which, in the greater number of the cases to which it applies, involves the incumbent in such a dilemma. I have often thought, that if evening lectures were substituted for the afternoon preachment, this difficulty might be obviated, as the incumbent and the curate might then divide the duty of the pulpit, and its uniformity might be preserved both in genuine principle and according to ecclesiastical right." "I fear, Sir." said I," the difficulty would not be so easily obviated; as no persons are found so tenacious of privilege, as those who make it subservient to prejudice; and I dare say, that the friends of Dr. N, in the present instance, would not very easily be prevailed upon to surrender either their privilege, or their prejudice, to the just plea of preserving the peace of the church."

"Why," said Mr. S—, “I do not see what counter plea they could urge, since I will be bound to assert, that not one in twenty of those who now support him will ever come to hear him: and I heartily wish, they would be geverned by the honest and manly sentiment, which actuates the old Presbyterians; one of whom, yesterday, answered my application for his vote in behalf of our friend, by saying, that as he always attended his own minister, he did not think he had any right to interfere in the choice of ours; but the real truth is, these dissenters are anxious to seize hold of any half-principled

preacher in the church, for the purpose of introducing their adverse system of schism." "Well Sir," I replied, "we must do what we can for Mr. L-, and assert the privilege of our church, without those prejudices which will doubtless be put in action against him. One of the strongest of these is, that Dr. N preaches extempore, and our friend does not." "O as to extempore preaching," exclaimed Mr. S, "I really think, that in the present era of religion, it is a practice "more honoured in the breach, than in the observance." The first preachers of Christianity, doubtless, had a plea for such a mode of propagating the gospel, which certainly the ministers of its latter ages cannot without some risk of presump tion pretend to. Yet, I will venture to assert, that in the sermons of nine out of ten extemporary preachers, there is neither arrangement of argument, uniformity of subject, nor grammatical construction of language-I have indeed seen them work themselves up into vehemence of delivery, and have heard them talk most incontinently fast, but like men in a passion, they have lost in their impetuosity all connection of idea. The copia verborum is one thing, the facultas dicendi is another, and nothing but profound meditation upon the subject, can unite a flow of words with appropriate expression. In the Scots church we not unfrequently find men of talent in whom this union is most judiciously preserved-but then we are to recollect, that this faculty is assiduously cultivated as a branch of their education. In our church, however, and among the protestant seceders from it, we too often see men without any talent vociferating their dogmas in extemporary language that would disgrace even the lowest of their auditors. To such as these Lord Chesterfield's remark very appositely applies. "A man of few ideas, is generally a man of ready speech," the reason for this is evi dent he is accustomed to talk upon the same subjects continually, and must necessarily acquire a habit of talking fluently upon them; as he who recommends to you an article of his trade in which he has dealt all his life, will descant most eloquently upon its qualities, and will run through the whole phraseology of persuasion which be has used a thousand times before-and it is thus that the most shallow divines among your extempore preachers, deliver

themselves with so much confident fluency upon the few topics which they have been accustomed to discuss-but if they take a flight out of their usual course, the wings of their eloquence fail, and they are fain to drop upon some ten-times repeated text for security. Yet men of profounder judg ment and deeper thought, who consider the consequence of what they are about to say before they give utterance to it, are never found to commit to the crude conceptions of the moment such impor tant subjects, as the former never hesitate to handle with the vain flippancy of arrogant self-reference-such men therefore preach pre-composed sermons, being well aware that even a single word, and much more a sentiment which may depend upon the acceptation of that word, if misapplied, may probably propagate an error among the more ignorant part of their hearers, of infinitely greater moment, than whether a man preaches extempore or not." "I admit the general truth of your obser vation," said I, "still you will allow that there are some individual exceptions What think you, for instance, of Mr. R. HJ, Dr. Cr, Mr. J—, of Bath, and the C --DS. "How, Sir," exclaimed Mr. S-, "could you find no exceptions in the establishment as well as out of it"—" I could,” replied 1, "have mentioned four or five extemporary preachers of our church in this metropolis-but not as exceptions, for they seem to have adopted extempore preaching, more with the desire to draw a crowd of followers into their churches, to the exclusion of the privileged occupants of the pews, than for the purpose of promulgating the doctrines of the church, to which indeed they be long, but to which they cannot be said to be attached-these are men of empty pretension-they make the nati onal pulpit a medium for numberless colloquial vulgarisins, and familiar impertinences, which our sobermiuded forefathers and judicious contempora ries have always considered, so applied, out of place and season-I will pass by these and their balba verba, as by no means possessing that talent to which they pretend, in any degree equal to the gentleman whom I have menti oned." "Have you ever heard RH-1" "I have," observed Mr. S, "and I think there is in his sermonsy if sermons we may call them, a great deal of gold dust, but which requires a

great deal of sifting also from the refuse matter with which it is mingled I wish this gentleman would sometimes call to mind, what he has read in his earlier years

-fuit hæc sapientia quondam

-secernere sacra profanis.

There is too much wit and too little wisdom in his matter; for it is not the province of the preacher to make his auditory laugh, but to keep them serious, and to send them away edified. Dr. Cr, I believe takes some pains to prepare himself for his work, but then he appears to consider himself of more importance than his employment -I have certainly heard many excellent discourses from hin, and if he could be prevailed upon to write them always, as he does upon some special occasions, his excellence would assume a more uniform character.

"Mr. J. is not, strictly speaking, an extempore preacher, as he usually preaches memoriter-but he is not on this account a less sensible or less eloquent preacher-I would that many of the servile pecus imitatorum in our church, of the extemporary pulpiteers out of it, would learn from Mr. J- not to forget either themselves or their subject -and as to the Messrs. C-ns, however justly they may be esteemed as eminent preachers, I cannot help thinking that they would make out a fairer title to their popularity among their people, were they to discard that undignified self-inflation which looks as if they would have us conclude, that they as well as the Apostles are the inspired preachers of the gospel. After all, how ever, is it not worthy of consideration with all these gentlemen as well as with every other extemporaneous preacher, to reflect, that the great theme of their eloquence is that miraculous plan of eternal salvation, to prepare and perfect which all the wisdom and power, all the mercy and goodness of Amighty God were engaged-and I would submit it to the consciousness of any one of them, whether they really ought to presume that their finite powers of intellect, enveloped as they are in the numerous infirmities of their mortal understandings, can warrant an unpremeditated, unassisted, and purely extempore exposition of those doctrines in which the stupendous, scheme of man's redemption is comprehended? and whether they feel themselves justi

fied in throwing their minds so hazardously abroad into all the desultory impulses of extemporaneous effusion, when those minds ought to be confined with the most reverent attention and most nutest bearing of so solemn and exalted scrupulous accuracy to every the mia subject, as that on which the everlasting interests of the soul indispensably depend ?"

Here our Reverend Canditate having risen to depart, observed, that he thought the safest and the most eligible method both for a Minister and Hock was to preach, but certainly not merely to read, pre-composed and well-digested discourses, by which means neither the ideas of the preacher would stand so much chance of being confused, nor those of the hearers perverted and misled.

Mr. S, taking him by the hand assured him of his cordial support, and having agreed to join us both at church and in our canvass, we separated; I returned to my lodgings with a full intention of hearing both the sermons on the sunday-although I felt well convinced that my friend would find his talents of little avail against the inflexible prejudices of the party who supported his opponent,

(To be continued.)

To the Editor of the European Magazine.

SIR,

7300, or take its 7300th part. Now the fraction 1-7300th is very nearly equal to the decimal .000137,* or, as it may be otherwise expressed, 1-10000th, and 37-100ths of 1-10000th.

For the ten thousandth it is, that we cut off the four right hand figures, and we then take parts as in Practice, for the 37-100ths; saying, 33 are the third, 3 are the tenth of this product, and is the tenth of the last product. Thus, we have a substitute for the division by 7300, which, with the easy correction before named, approximates extremely near to the true result.

It may be further observed, that instead of a farthing, it is the 1-1000th part of a pound that should be subtracted; as may be proved by working this calculation according to the given rule.

Let it be required to find the amount of the interest on 100001. for 73 days. I is immediately seen that this will be 1001. and according to the rule.

for when the fractions are brought to a common denoninator, they become 2000 27008+27000+77288, or which is very nearly equal to. There fore the expression pt+pt be comes pt+(++) pt, (neglecting the error) which then must be divided by 10000, to make it equal to the ori ginal expression,

Now pt+++) pt, when divided by 10000, is the algebraic ex pression for the rule given by your Correspondent; the principles on which it is founded, and the two sources of error contained in it, are therefore shewn by what has been said above.

The error would amount to about 14d. (deficient) in the interest of 10001 for 364 days.

I am, Sir,

Your most obedient servant, N.

To the Editor of the European Magazine.

SIR,

ALTHOUGH I read with much satis

faction the memoir of Charles Phillips, Esq. inserted in the last Number of your European-yet, I was somewhat surprised, at an omission which I request you will allow me to supply-Mr. Phillips is a bachelor: it may not, perhaps, be of much conse quence to the public to be told this; yet it certainly is a piece of informa tion which is not without its impor tance in a biographical record. I am, Sir,

Your humble Servant, A CONSTANT READER.

MEMOIRS OF A RECLUSE. (Continued from page 396.)

T

HE Physician, our fifth brother, rose with his usual smile-" I approve your motto," said he, addressing himself to Counsellor Lumiere: "When the Creator sent light, he sent Truth and Justice into the world. Since they are the elements of happiness, who shall accuse him of neglecting to provide it-Yet both our professions, brother, acquaint us largely with the infirmities of human nature, and would be superfluous indeed if it was perfect. Let us be believed, therefore, if experience and research only tend to convince us how well those infirmities are balanced by its powers and resources. That they require regulation is no greater subject of complaint, than that the most exquisite machinery may fail without a due exercise of its springs. Every behevolent thought is a pleasant sensation. With this maxim in his head, a middle-aged man placed himself on the roof of a stage-coach, to enjoy a delicious prospect, and that healthful motion which, if it was not seen every day, and in almost every man's power, would be deemed the most exquisite luxury. Your shrewd smiles announce your belief that this traveller was your fifth brother. Chief Justice Coke thanked Heaven because he had a good wife, took no physic, and knew the law:-1, at that period, was thankful that I had no wife, could live by physic, and never took the law. Without presuming to decide the rival claims of the peers and peeresses of creation, I had some vague ideas that the latter ought not to be paramount, especially as one of the sex has told us that the wisest woman is only a little less foolish than the rest. My father, whose union with my mother had been a mixture of peevishness and indifference resembling the American dish of sour cream and cucumber, paid implicit respect to Queen Mary's opinion. Believing a clever woman only a mistake of nature, he chose for my bride a young damsel, whose ignorance would have placed her very high in that Italian state which was once governed by I Quatri illiterati, or the four greatest dunces. My journey in the stage coach, I have mentioned, was to see this model of primitive loveliness, whose poetical name entitled her to homage.

Europ. Mag. Vol. LXX. Dec. 1816.

Alphonsine was too ignorant to be simple, and had acquired all those romantic notions which lodge in unfurnished heads. According to modern description, she had so much of the "freshness of youth, the spell of grace, and the mystery of loveliness about her, that her form resembled a brilliant exhalation from the incorporated mists of the morning!" This, at least, was her own private opinion; and as a humble physician could not deserve any treasure so ethereal, her first overt act was a formal protest against my visit. The simple name of Beauclerc, which I offered, was rivalled by one more attractive. She had that morning received a letter, of which, as we can all laugh at each other's follies, a copy may amuse our fraternity.

"We shall soon escape, amiable Alphonsine, from the soulless intercourse of the world, and find peace in the charming retreat offered us by my native valley. You alone, who have courage to brave and break the trammels of heart-freezing custom, and to adopt the kind of happiness dictated by reason, are worthy to possess it with me. This evening shall waft you from the vile shackles of home to the paradise of love

Not that cold love to frozen worldlings

known,

O! my soul swoons, and-I can say no more! MISANDER."

The sublime is said to be a secret something whose power and extent cannot be seen. According to this definition, Alphonsine's resolution to bestow herself on a lover whose name and station in life she did not know, was a hazard truly sublime. The appointed hour arrived, and the fair elopee, with all the mystery which gives such importance and attraction to absurdities, was placed in a chaise by her Misander, introduced to his confidential friend, who accompanied them, and driven by the soft light of an October moon under the long arcade of rocks which forms the vale of St. John. The door of a thatched cottage, interestingly

3 S