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these pages to recommend, you must BEGIN EARLY and LABOUR PATIENTLY; otherwise, you will never make the attainment. As the discipline of the temper and feelings ought to be commenced with the earliest dawn of reason, and is the work of a lifetime; so the discipline of the manners, if the expression may be allowed, depending as it does for success on "ruling our spirits," should be begun as early as possible; the sooner the better. Say not, it is too soon for you to begin to "put on the clergyman," when you are only in the second year of your theological studies. Let me tell you, my friend, if you begin now, and labour in this species of culture with the utmost assi. duity, I shall consider you as doing great things if you succeed in forming even tolerable clerical manners by the time you are ready to enter the pulpit. It is, as I have already said, a gradual work. In the conflict with your old habits, and your unhallowed feelings, you will have many a painful struggle, and will probably suffer many a discouraging defeat. It will be much if you ultimately gain the victory. If you are so happy, you will find it to be no easy conquest. But, when gained, it will be the most glorious and the most precious of all victories-A VIC ORY OVER YOURSELF.

You will perceive that my counsel extends beyond the time that you propose to spend in

the Theological Seminary, and, indeed, will apply, in some of its parts, to the whole of your clerical life, should it be ever so long This was expressly intended. It occurred to me that a little manual, addressed to One of those who bear to me the relation of Pupils, adapted to promote his benefit, not only while he continues in the Institution of which I am an officer, but when he shall have taken his leave of it, nay as long as he lives; might, at the same time, if given through the medium of the press, be of some use to others, to whom I have had, and may yet have, the honour and the pleasure to stand in the same relation; not merely in the beginning, but throughout the whole of their course. And if the following pages should be blessed, in the smallest degree, to your advantage. or that of any other individual, in preparing for a profession which I love, I shall consider myself as abundantly rewarded.

I will only add, that in preparing this little system of advices, I have by no means forgotten how small my title is to assume the office of teacher on such a subject. It is a maxim in physical science, that a stream can never, in ordinary circumstances, rise higher than its fountain. If I thought this maxim applied as rigidly in intellectual and moral culture, I should lay down my pen in despair: or rather, I should

not have dared to take it up for the purpose of discussing a subject at once so delicate and difficult. But it does not. Nothing is more common than to see pupils rising far higher than their instructors in knowledge and practical wisdom. This thought comforts and animates me in the undertaking. My office having placed "me in the way of perceiving how greatly a body

precepts and suggestions on this subject is needed; having never seen any thing which appeared to me to approach toward answering the purpose in view; knowing that all that many ingenuous youth need, to put them on the right track, is a collection of hints, for setting their own minds at work; and hoping that what is "sown in weakness," may be "raised in power," I venture to make the attempt which the title of these Letters announces. May our common Master accept and bless it!

LETTER II,

See that ye walk circumspectly, not as
EPHES. V. 15.

fools, but as wise.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICKS OF CLERICAL MANNERS.

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND,

In pursuing the subject introduced to your view in the preceding Letter, a question presents itself, which seems to require some discussion, before we proceed to the details which are intended to occupy the following pages. The question is this-Is there any thing peculiar in the style of manners proper for a minister of the gospel? Ought the manners of a clergyman perceptibly to differ from those of a well-bred man of a secular profession? I think they ought. That is to say, I am clearly of the opinion that they ought to bear a stamp, in a variety of particulars, characteristick of the hallowed spirit and sacred office with which they are connected. All other professional men, indeed, would be the better for having the same sort of manners that I am about to recommend to ministers of the gospel; but with re

spect to the latter, they are so indispensably necessary to the complete attainment of all those advantages which manners can impart to their possessor, that they may be said, without impropriety, to be peculiarly clerical in their

nature.

If I were to attempt to exhibit the peculiarity in question, I should say it may be expressed in six words-Dignity, Gentleness. Condescension, Affability, Reserve, and Uniformity.

1. Dignity. By this I mean that happy mixture of gravity and elevation in human deportment, which evinces a mind habitually thoughtful, serious, and set on high things. An air and manner opposed to levity; opposed to that propensity to jesting, which is so often. manifested by some who bear the sacred office; opposed to what is grovelling; opposed in short, to every species of lightness or volatility, which, however tolerated in young persons of secular professions, is barely tolerated, even in them, and certainly adds nothing to their respectability in the view of any one but which in muisters of the gospel, is peculiarly unseemly, and never fails to lower the estimation in which they are held by all discerning people. I have often thought, my young friend, that you were by far too ready to give way to your risible feelings. Every public man, and especially every clergyman, ought to cultivate that

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