treated by his rector.

As his curate will relieve

him from some part of his most laborious duties, he will have more leisure to cultivate society and literature. He may give greater attention to the composition of his sermons, in which he may, if he be of a suitable age, assume a more pastoral tone to direct his flock: he may, whenever he sees occasion, advert to particular circumstances among the higher classes of his parishioners, which it would be shameful in him to countenance, but in which it would in some cases not be proper for a curate to interfere. It is not by public exhortations, it is not from the pulpit, that a minister of the gospel has it most in his power to be of service to those, who boast superior affluence, or fashion, or what they deem superior information. It is often in the freedom and familiarity of the domestic circle, that a clergyman of winning manners and benevolence, whose mind is imbued with classical literature, and tinctured with various knowledge, may, if he possess the happy arts of conversation, infuse into the minds both of men of the world and of academic learning, a taste for true philosophy, for virtue, and piety; even in mixed companies, in the careless hours of gayety and festivity, he may seize fortunate occasions, to soften the animosities of party, to infuse a liberal, tolerant spirit into the open heart, and to improve the feelings of casual conviviality into the principles of permanent be

nevolence: a few well-timed words have made peace between enemies, who have been supposed to be irreconcilable. A judicious hint, an inference, an allusion, has sometimes excited reflection in the minds of the most thoughtless, and has operated changes in the conduct of many, whose pride would have resisted direct counsel, or open exhortation.

Know there are words and spells, which can control,
Between the fits, the fever of the soul.

It is scarcely necessary to say, that a good clergyman should not interfere in county politics, or meddle with the intrigues of elections, or with any species of intrigue. It is scarcely necessary to observe, that he should never, in his external appearance, sacrifice to fashion any of the decencies of his order. An appropriate dress is becoming in a clergyman. These are things, which to trifling people seem trivial, but which to the truly wise always appear important, from the effect they produce on the public mind.

There is no reason why a clergyman, who has sufficient leisure, should not cultivate any branch of polite literature, or any science, for which he may have a taste. Watson, the celebrated Bishop of Llandaff, gave up his favourite study of chemistry, in compliance with the notions of some, who thought it unsuited to the clerical character. This sacrifice was certainly made

from good motives, and therefore it should be treated with respect: but it was not surely a reasonable concession; it was rather an amiable weakness, than an example of strength of mind proper for imitation. Unless he devotes an undue portion of his time to them, can the study of chemistry, of mineralogy, of mathematics, of astronomy, of any part of natural history, be unbecoming a clergyman?-he, who is "to look through nature up to nature's God!"-How agreeably, and how curiously (in the happiest sense of the word) did that amiable clergyman, White, of Selborne, employ his leisure hours! Few naturalists have published a more amusing work than his. If clergymen were more frequently to apply themselves to the topographical history of their respective parishes, much valuable and accurate knowledge would be preserved; and this might supply the deficiencies of those crude, hasty, and imperfect masses called histories, that discredit so many counties.

No amusements can be better suited to a clergyman, who resides in the country, than botany and gardening. Agriculture also is allowable, as far as it is confined within certain limits. Farming his glebe, for instance, is preferable to taking a farm of other lands: because mensal lands were originally intended for the support of the house, and of a hospitable table. A rector is suitably employed in cultivating his glebe to the utmost

perfection of neatness; he does service by setting his country neighbours an example of the best modes of culture and rural economy; but further he should not go. He should in this, as in all other things, avoid excess; and where the fashion, as at present, is in extremes, he should guard against countenancing it by his example. A clergyman should never enter, as a farmer, into competition with his parishioners; he should never farm for profit, so far as to attend markets, or to become a professed grazier or breeder of cattle. These are not times of primitive pastoral simplicity, when the occult mysteries of breeding were the only science of a patriarch. It is not becoming, that a clergyman's talk should be of bullocks; or that he should value himself upon his breed of pigs. It is not decorous for a clergyman to be a frequenter of fairs, a driver of bargains, or a buncher of oxen. It is not decorous, that he should be found, like parson Trulliber, in his sty, or with his dung-cart. We may talk of Virgil's throwing about his dung with an air of majesty, but this can be done only by a poet, and by poetic licence: the times are past, and the manners are changed, since Cincinnatus held the plough, and princesses washed linen. In our

* A Buncher of oxen-a person who feels their ribs to determine how fat they are. Buncher, perhaps from puncher. Some of our English dukes have been famous bunchers; but this taste or fashion is now declining.

days, mean occupations lower the dignity of those by whom they are practised; even where no bodily share is taken in these, the mind, that is continually intent upon mercenary views and petty gains, grows sordid, and its thoughts descend to what is vulgar. Clergymen, who become professed farmers, too often forget that they are clergymen; they are so much engrossed by their low concerns, that they have no leisure for the high duties of the clerical profession: they are so bound to earth, that they cannot lift their thoughts to Heaven, or spare time to think of eternity.—As a sincere friend to the church, the author of this essay, even in a temporal point of view, prefers what he thinks must tend to their credit and dignity, though it may be at some sacrifice of their convenience and emolument. On this principle, he wishes that their revenues were raised, and certain; that thus they might be emancipated from all cares about gain, from taking thought about provision for the day or the year. Then they might devote themselves to the duties of their sacred function, and to literature and science.

If a country clergyman have much leisure, and no peculiar taste for any of the liberal sciences, yet the vast field of literature lies open to him; he may employ his hours profitably for himself, and usefully for the public, in writing on any subject of belles-lettres, or morality. Many in