an oath), 'If I had been brought up at college by ---- I should have
been a Bishop.' Two vices used to struggle in him for mastery, avarice
and the love of strong drink. But avarice, as is common in like cases,
always got the better of its opponent, for though he was often
intoxicated it was never, I believe, at his own expense. As has been
said of one in a more exalted station, he could take any _given_
quantity. I have heard a story of him which is worth the telling. One
Summer's morning our Grasmere curate, after a night's carouse in the
Vale of Langdale, on his return home having reached a point near which
the whole Vale of Grasmere might be seen with the Lake immediately below
him, he stept aside and sat down upon the turf. After looking for some
time at the landscape, then in the perfection of its morning beauty, he
exclaimed, 'Good God! that I should have led so long such a life in such
a place!' This no doubt was deeply felt by him at the time, but I am not
authorised to say that any noticeable amendment followed. Penuriousness
strengthened upon him as his body grew feebler with age. He had
purchased property and kept some land in his own hands, but he could not
find in his heart to lay out the necessary hire for labourers at the
proper season, and consequently he has often been seen in half dotage
working his hay in the month of November by moonlight--a melancholy
sight, which I myself have witnessed. Notwithstanding all that has been
said, this man, on account of his talents and superior education, was
looked up to by his parishioners, who, without a single exception, lived
at that time (and most of them upon their own small inheritances) in a
state of republican equality, a condition favourable to the growth of
kindly feelings among them, and, in a striking degree, exclusive to
temptations to gross vice and scandalous behaviour. As a pastor, their
curate did little or nothing for them; but what could more strikingly
set forth the efficacy of the Church of England, through its Ordinances
and Liturgy, than that, in spite of the unworthiness of the minister,
his church was regularly attended; and though there was not much
appearance in his flock of what might be called animated piety,
intoxication was rare, and dissolute morals unknown? With the Bible they
were, for the most part, well acquainted, and, as was strikingly shown
when they were under affliction, must have been supported and comforted
by habitual beli