ncreasing family and a
decreased income, to work from morning till night, he grew morose and
very unsettled in his faith.

The French Revolution was then at its wildest excess: equality was
universally advocated in religious, as well as political establishments.
The excitement of the times reached even to the sawpit. Brandon got
tipsy one Saturday night with a parcel of demagogues, and when he awoke
early next Sunday morning--it was a beautiful summer day--he made the
sudden discovery that he had still his faith to seek for. Then began
his dominical pilgrimages: with his son Ralph in his hand, he roved from
one congregation to another over the vast metropolis, and through its
extensive environs: I do not think that we left a single place dedicated
to devotion unvisited. I well remember that he was much struck with the
Roman Catholic worship. We repeated our visits three or four times to
the Catholic chapel, a deference we paid to no other. The result of
this may be easily imagined: when an excited mind searches for food, it
will be satisfied with the veriest trash, provided only that it
intoxicates. We at length stumbled upon a small set of mad Methodists,
more dismal and more excluding than even Ford's sect: the congregation
were all of the very lowest class, with about twelve or thirteen
exceptions, and those were decidedly mad. The pastor was an arch rogue,
that fattened upon the delusion of his communicants. They held the
doctrine of visible election, which election was made by having a call--
that is, a direct visitation of the Holy Ghost, which was testified by
falling down in a fit--the testification being the more authentic, if it
happened in full congregation. The elected could never again fall: the
sins that were afterwards committed in their persons were not theirs--it
was the evil spirit within them, that they could cast out when they
would, and be equally as pure as before. All the rest of the world, who
had not had their call, were in a state of reprobation, and on the
highroad to damnation.

All this, of course, I did not understand till long afterwards, but I
too unhappily understood, or at least fancied I did, the dreadful images
of eternal torments, and the certainty that they would soon be mine.
First of all, either from inattention, or from want of comprehension,
these denunciations made but a faint impression upon me. But the
frightful descriptions took, gradually, a more visible and ste