is the three per cents.

Another and a better reason of Mr. Dale's immense congregation is, that
his charity is unremitting--given in the best way, in the shape of work
instead of alms--and irrespective of the religious sect of the recipient.
I have heard of several such cases that do him much honour. And, after
all, in the pulpit as well as elsewhere, conduct tells more than
character in the long run. Hence his personal influence is great; and,
of course, that helps to fill the church. Nor can we much wonder. What
eloquence is stronger than that of a holy, a useful, a devoted life?
Acts speak stronger than words. I see more power in an act of charity,
done in the name of religion and of God, than in the passionate and
fascinating gorgeous rhetoric of an hour.

Mr. Dale is a good Greek scholar, and has translated Sophocles. It is
easy to see why Sophocles should better suit him than AEschylus or
Euripides--the polish of the one would please him better than the wild
grandeur of the others. Of him, as a poet, I cannot speak very highly.
His versification is correct--his sentiment is good. To the very large
class of readers who will accept such substitutes for poetry as the real
thing, our divine is a poet of no mean order. 'What we want, sir,' said
a publisher to me the other day, 'is a lively religious novel.' Mr.
Dale's poetry answers to these conditions: hence its success.

His poetry was a great help to his popularity. When he was rector of the
parish of St. Bride's, and evening lecturer at St. Sepulchre, he was more
intimately connected than at present with literary pursuits, and was much
run after. About that time Annuals were the rage, and Mr. Dale edited a
religious Annual called 'The Iris,' and young ladies learnt his verses by
heart, or copied them into their albums. At one time Mr. Dale was
Professor of English Language and Literature at the University College,
in Gower Street. However, as a Tory and a Churchman, he seems to have
found himself out of his element there, and left it for King's College,
Strand, at which place he held a similar appointment. It was thought
that church preferment had something to do with this; that his chances
were, in consequence, in danger; that in high quarters the University
College was regarded with an unfavourable eye: so Mr. Dale threw it
overboard. Such was the rumour at the time. Of course, to some men,
such conduct may seem only wise--prudent; but if minis