a peace of mind and good will; and to sum up all, it inspires that true benevolence which is the essence of politeness, which, in the words of a definition of Dr. Witherspoon, is 'real kindness kindly expressed,' in all our intercourse inhuman society. The acquaintance of our readers may furnish them with exemplifications of these remarks. They recall with pleasure to our own minds one, particularly-who is now missionary among a distant and more than pagan people,-in whom there was an elevated cheerfulness and simplicity of manner, which made his society alike agreeable to the cultivated and unembarrassing to the homebred, and the goodness of whose heart shone out in every expression of his countenance, and was exhibited in a thousand kind and respectful actions unconsciously performed. He was a beautiful illustration of the truth of Dr. M's position, and yet no one would have been more surprised to hear himself called polite for his early circumstances had not introduced him into the halls of fashionable life, nor acquainted him with the etiquette of the glittering portion of mankind. He was however conversant with the "excellent of the earth," and as far as he had opportunity, was an observer of the world. Dr. M. quotes the remark of a venerable clergyman, showing the connexion between piety and politeness, that some of the more polished and pious of the ministers belonging to the Moravians, furnished specimens of manners as worthy of imitation as any he had ever seen." It is an opinion we should be prepared to entertain from the character of their piety. 66 Piety alone, however, is not sufficient for the complete attainment of good breeding. It cannot altogether reform the abuses, or supply the neglects, of early education; it cannot correct habits of which the VOL. I.-No. IX. 62 possessor may be unconscious, or which he may think indifferent; and there are many things which are merely conventional and can be understood only by a knowledge of the world. True politeness is indeed substantially the same in all countries; yet it is variously mod'ified by artificial forms: the manners of the Persian are not the manners of the Englishman, nor the civilities of the Hollander precisely those of the Frenchman; and hence so far as good breeding, in any country, depends on an acquaintance with these conventionary forms, it must be acquired by intercourse with society. Dr. M. commences his second Letter with the question whether there is " there is" 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?" He decides that they ought; and we think correctly. The manners of a clergyman ought to be peculiar-in those respects in which his profession is itself calculated to make them so. Thus a just sense of the nature and responsibilities of his office will naturally give him a more serious cast of character than that of other men; and in proportion as he is more conversant with heavenly things, so will he naturally exhibit more pureness and elevation of mind in his conversation, and more simplicity and kindness in his general deportment. In these respects he may be peculiar and indeed very peculiar without affectation, or the imputation of singularity. Such is the natural influence of his calling. But this is a different kind of peculiarity from that, we know not what to call it, sanctified demeanor which some imagine to be the proper style of the clerical profession. We allude to a certain manner which is put op, like a saintly cowl, for rever ence, sake—which wears an air of affected meekness, and walks softly, and never speaks but in solemn accents, even on common topics, which not merely deepens its gravity at any unbeseeming levity in its presence, but represses even the frank and cheerful sympathies of our nature, and turns a pastoral, and even a social visit, into stiffness and constraint. This style of manners, like the " holy tone," is less common in our times and country than it has been in others. It has passed away with the false taste,in the laity as well as clergy,-of which it was the offspring, together with all the strifes and emulous dissimularities of sects in other times; and has given place to a more free and manly, and at the same time, not less serious and salutary cast of character, in the clergy. We apprehend, however, that there are still those, whose influence is impaired by a too clerical style of manners, though, it must be confessed, the greater number, probably, err on the opposite hand. All affectation is offensive. Nothing is beautiful but truth, was a maxim of Guido, and it is as true in manners as in the arts. Nay how much more important its application to the living man, and above all, to the clergyman, acting upon his fellow men, and moulding their sentiments and manners, than to the inanimate productions of the pencil and the chisel. But there is no species of affectation which is more offensive than sanctimony. There is none which has so generally disgusted mankind, and filled their minds with prejudice against the sacred profession. That seriousness of character in the clergyman which is the natural effect of his employments, the world will respect; but a seriousness beyond this, an assumed sanctity, however well meant, or unconsciously adopted, they will attribute to hypocrisy or weakness. It is indeed true on the other hand, (if we seem to speak against gravity in the ministry,) that he whose seriousness of char acter falls short of his profession does likewise give disgust to the world. For " nothing is so odious," says Bishop Burnet, “as a man that disagrees with his character; a soldier that is a coward, a courtier that is brutal, an ambassador that is abject, are not such unseemly things as a bad or vicious, a drunken or dissolute," and he might have added, with a proportionate degree of truth, a lightminded and trifling, " clergyman;" and though levity be a fault which the world will more easily forgive than its opposite extreme, they will at the same time reproach it with the greater inconsistency. Against this hyper-clerical style of manners Dr. M. takes care to guard his pupils. "My object," he remarks, "is by no means to help you to weave a "professional cloak," for the purpose of covering mental imbecility, corrupt practice, or sinister design. It is not to recommend a buckram dress, for the purpose of repelling familiarity, or inspiring with awe. But simply to help you to appear, what you ought to be,-a pious, benevolent, amiable man. Yet, after all, among the members of a seminary there will always be a number who will sooner apprehend the doctrine of a certain style of manners appropri ately clerical, than conceive a just idea of what that style should be, however explained or qualified. Habitually passive to instruction on every subject, they will rely the more implicitly on precepts for instruction in manners; and understanding that as clergymen their manners are to be peculiar;-that they are to be 'dignified, gentle, condesending, affable, reserved, and uniform,' it will not be surprising if, as they have put on the reverend they have put off humanity. Perhaps therefore it were bet ter, in instructions of this knid, to know nothing of clerical manners as such, but simply to point out those things which are hurtful to the ministry, and leave the rest to piety, their sacred office, and their own observation. The third Letter in the volume treats of "offensive personal habits." It is indeed a budget of offensive things-such as we could hope no student at Princeton, or at any other theological seminary, would need to be admonished of. Our first feeling on reading it was, that its subjects, such was their barbarism, were too gravely treated, and too much at length; that they had better been thrown off in a satirical paragraph, or omitted altogether; or else been printed in a separate manual, for the general benefit of slovens, instead of being made conspicuous in a professed treatise on the manners of clergymen, as if they particularly needed the admonitions contained in this letter. But slovens there will be, and some will blunder into the sacred profession, as into every other; and when we reflect how much positive mischief these may do, and how much good they may fail to do, through the mere effect of ill breeding, we are willing they should be lectured into some sense of their improprieties, and if possible, made to feel their grossness in the graphic language of Dr. M. It is a lesson they will be more likely to meet with in a professedly clerical book, than in any secular treatise on manners. If then there be any one, whether student or pastor, who is chargeable with the things here reprobated, of "bespattering the clothes and persons" of his neighbours with "tobacco spittle," and "defiling floors and carpets beyond endurance" with "puddles at his feet;" of "combing his hair," or "paring his nails," in company, or of "boisterous laughter" or of all imagina ble "awkward, constrained, or lounging postures," as if he had taken lessons in sitting from children's handkerchiefs, in which the human form is sometimes made to represent the nine digits, or all the shapes of the alphabet; or if he be guilty of "picking his teeth at table," or of "coughing, yawning, and sneezing over the dishes," or be chargeable with the daintiness of the epicure, or the greediness of the gormand, or the incipient thirst of the tipler, or with many other things which are pointed out in this chapter, and some of which we cannot possibly mention, he will find here a mirror in which he will surely view himself with no great complacency. Slovenly habits in some men are the misfortune of their education ; in others they are the effect of sheer heedlessness. Some indulge them from a low pride: good manners are sour grapes, they are conscious of not possessing them, and they therefore affect to despise them; others, from disgust at the opposite extreme of refinement: they prefer coarseness to starchness, and bluntness to effeminacy. But in all cases in which vulgar manners are suffered to go uncorrected, the subject of them surely does not estimate their effect on his usefulness. A minister of Jesus should be an 66 ensample to his flock," in all things which are comely. He should be welcome to their dwellings, and not dreaded as a nuisance. But we have known ministers-men perhaps of excellent traits of character, and able preachers--whose visits among their people were rather endured than made profitable, because of the various petty annoyances they gave. Perhaps for instance, they have no sooner entered a house than the destruction of furniture goes on, till the visit is ended; and, not improbably, they go away musing at the strange demeanor of the -never lady, at her uneasiness and fidgeting, and her occasional inattentiveness to their remarks,reflecting that not every lady is stoic enough to see with composure, her chairs rasped with bootsoles, or her carpet soiled with tobacco juice, or the beauty of an entire room defaced, even to the necessity of sending for the paperhanger, by heads too heedless to consider that paper-hangings were not made to be reclined against. Now it were a charity to such men to show them the evil of their slo venly habits. It would be giving them an important piece of information, to show them, what they seem not to know, the use of such things as paint and varnish, or to demonstrate to them the reasonableness of the doctrine, that if it be worth while to ornament furniture at all, it is equally desirable that what is done with so much niceness in the workshop should not be recklessly undone in the parlour. These are indeed small matters in themselves considered, and in themselves are unworthy of serious reprehension. But in their connexion with ministerial usefulness they may merit so much remark as we have bestowed upon them. Petty mischiefs are great evils in certain circumstances. The fourth and fifth Letters relate to "conversation,"-the fifth exclusively to religious conversation. Both contain good remarks, and especially the latter, but their topics are quite too numerous for us to notice. We shall merely glance at a few. Among the cautions the author gives his pupil,"with especial earnestness," one is that he put himself "on his guard against being drawn into controversy, in company, with aged men and females. La dies have a natural ally in our gallantry, and may ply us with their "acutenes, wit, sprightliness, and delicate raillery," and even with their specious arguments, while our hands are tied by our courtesy. which forbids our making a manfu! defence; and as to "aged men," Never dream that you will be able to convince, or by any means to effect an alteration in the opinions of a man who has passed the age of three score, or three score and ten. You do not dispute with such an one on equal terms. If his opinions be ever so erroneous, he is probably wedded to them by long habit as well as by strong prejudice. He will naturally consider himself as your superior, and take for granted that you cannot init difficult to use the same freedom struct him. Of course, you will find and scope of argument with him, that you would with one nearer to an equality with yourself in age.—p. 106. It often happens that the opinions of which the aged are most tenacious, and which they most expect their juniors to regard with deference, are those which they received when they themselves were young; and the reason is, that these opinions, having been formed with the less maturity of judgment, partake the more of prejudice and the less of rational conviction—and nothing is so impatient of contradiction as prejudice. But in the mean time, as light and improvement are progressive, it is not improbable that their younger brethren may have formed their opinions on the same subjects under better advantages and with better results; and feeling that free inquiry is the equal right of all, and not perceiving how age should hallow prejudice, or give to error the character of truth, they will not always be disposed to receive the sentiments of aged men with that deference which is due to age itself. Perhaps they will oftener reply with the spirit of Elihu, the youngest of Job's reprovers, than exhibit his modest diffidence and long delay. "I am young and ye are very old; where fore I was afraid, and durst not show you my opinion. I said Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom. But there is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. Great men are not always wise, neither do the aged understand judgment. Therefore I said, Hearken to me: I also will show my opinion." Great respect is always due to age. And it may often be better for a young man to hear opinions expressed, in which he cannot concur, or to hear his own proscribed, especially if they be of a speculative instead of a practical nature, and keep himself to a respectful silence, rather than engage in a warm discussion with one who is very much his senior. At the same time he may lay up a maxim for his own conduct when he himself shall have become a man of years. It was a resolution of Franklin,-who had observed the captiousness which old men are wont to exhibit towards their juniors, sometimes because they are their juniors,—that when he should be old, he would treat with respect the opinions of young men. There are many just remarks on the subject of" religious conversation" which we might be inclined to enlarge upon, could we pretend to notice even a small proportion of the topics which are scattered along the volume. We will select a few passages as we come to the chapter succeeding. It is the error of some to imagine that religious conversation is to be carried on with a tone of voice, and an aspect of countenance, peculiar to itself. Hence, while these persons converse on all other subjects in a simple, easy, natural manner, the moment they pass to the subject of religion, their whole manner is changed.-p. 136. As if religion were the saddest, and not the most cheerful thing in the world. We have heard persons both talk and preach in such a sort, than an untaught heathen, judging from their tone and countenance might conclude that the Christian religion was a kind of reluctant alternative,-better indeed, but hardly better, than the opposite alternative of not embracing it. Why should we always speak of "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, and of good report," in the tones which nature gave us for sympathy and mourning? Shun this fault with the utmost care. Do not, indeed, allow yourself to fall talking on the subject of religion with into the opposite extreme.-I mean levity. But, at the same time, let all grimace, all sanctimoniousness of manner, all affected solemnity, all lofty dictation, be carefully avoided. The more simple, affable, and entirely inartificial your manner, the more you will gratify all classes; nor is this all; the more easily will you always find it to slide insensibly into religious conversation, without alarming the fears of the most thoughtless; and the more easy to recur to it again, after a little interruption from other topics.--pp、 136, 137. A common and mischievous error is well remarked upon in the following passage. Be not hasty in publishing the exercises or situation of those whom you know to be anxiously inquiring. It is deeply painful to observe the frequency and injudiciousness with which this rule is infringed. A person, perhaps, has scarcely become conscious to himself of deep solicitude respecting of it to his minister, or to some pious his spiritual interest, and given a hint friend, before it is blazed abroad; becomes matter of public speculation; and leads a number of persons immediately to crowd around him, and offer their services as his instructors and guides. The consequences of this |