s mind at this time was so eloquently described to
me by this friend, that I shall quote his words as I took them down
from his own lips: "To ordinary appearance his mind was like a common
flower; with beauty, perhaps, that would not catch the unobservant
eye; but intimate as I was, I could discover in his homely talk,
beauties that those who only knew him slightly could not observe,
because he kept his petals closed. He did not open to many, but I saw,
or thought I saw, the germs of what he afterwards became."

The lecture was a great success, and the conductors of the Sunday
school had no difficulty afterwards in persuading him to give short
addresses to the children. He appears about this time to have
decided to become a preacher, and his character became deepened and
intensified by the determination. This is so well described in a
letter from Farnham that I shall again quote: "When he first fully
made up his mind to give his attention to preaching and teaching, he
and I were deputed to visit a village about an hour's walk from
this town to canvass the houses, and see if a Sunday school could be
established. I remember it was about this time of the year, and with
what delight my friend seemed to drink in all the beauties of Nature
on that quiet Sunday morning. _He seemed, to look on these things with
new eyes_; and he often, in years long after, referred in sermons and
in speeches to that Sunday morning's walk."

The Sunday school was established, and here, "in one of Surrey's
prettiest villages," Vince preached his first sermon in a cottage.

At this time, too, he became a politician, taking his lessons and
forming his political creed from a most unlikely source, apparently.
This was the _Weekly Dispatch_, a paper that in those days was
scarcely thought to be proper reading for young people. He read it,
however, with avidity, and there is no doubt that it had much to do
with forming his political character, and in laying the foundation
of the sturdy inflexibility with which he held to his political
principles. One of his early friends says, "He liked the _Weekly
Dispatch_. The politics, being racy, had a great attraction for him,
and he used to drink them in ravenously."

From this time he was the "pet speaker" of the place. His lectures
at the Mechanics' Institute were delivered frequently, and became
immensely popular. The lecture-room was far too small for the eager
listeners who crowded to hear him. "A large