So much for the qualifications which a Speaker requires. Impartiality, temper, judgment, and a con amore liking for musty parchments and dry distinctions, are not often met with in one individual, especially not in one with sufficient intellectual acquirements to distinguish him among his fellows.

fifty-seven men, of all classes, prejudices, and shades | ble, at least in reputation if not in person, for the of opinion, be induced, if not to select him, at least correctness of the decision which he may give. to concur in his appointment? We are accustomed to think lightly, perhaps, of the ability required for the office; but we more often do so from sheer thoughtlessness than from cool judgment; because the qualities which render a man fit for the post, and enable him to discharge its duties well, are exactly those which are the least obtrusive, and the most likely to be overlooked by a careless observer. Though Speaker, he is not to speak-hence our indifference to his abilities.

One most rare virtue he must possess-Impartiality. Whatever may have been his former political bias, he must now have no mind or thought but what grows out of the House itself. The slightest appearance of partiality, of preference for members on the one side or the other, would ruin him utterly and for ever in the opinion, not merely of the opposite party, but also of those in whose behalf it was exhibited. Nothing can be more certain than this. Whatever may be the faults of the House-however the spirit of party may influence individuals when before the public still behind the curtain there reigns that strong gentlemanly spirit, which revolts at all that is not strictly just. A partial speaker would be found out and got rid of at once. Yet what a difficult thing it is to find an impartial man. There are many who wish to be so, but their education and their prejudices forbid it. If this be true in private, it is still more so in public, life. Hence the difficulty of choosing the Speaker.

When we come to the nature of the duties of the Speaker, we shall feel still more sympathy for him, and still less disposition to begrudge present pay, or the future pension and peerage that await him. Besides his more public functions in the chair, he has multifarious duties of a minor kind to go through. To enumerate them would be tedious, because they merely relate to the forms of proceeding in the House; but it is sufficient to say that they are enough to occupy three or four hours, and sometimes more, of his time in the day, when he ought to be indulging in some recreation as a relief from the fatigues of the night. They are duties, too, of a technical kind, from which even a blundering speech from Joseph Hume would be an agreeable change.

The duty of the Speaker at night is what few men would voluntarily undertake. From four o'clock in the afternoon until an indefinite hour the next morning he is compelled to occupy the chair, and to listen to the laborious absurdities that mark the great majority of the speeches uttered in the House of Commons. Those who have never been in the House before, and for the first time enter it on the night of a great party debate, no doubt think it very amusing indeed; and so, for a time, it is. But let them be doomed, night after night, to sit and hear the twaddle of would-be legislators and reformers, or the impotent attempts at eloquence which issue from almost all but the great speakers, and they will say the office of a horse in a mill would be amusement to it. Yet this is the case of the Speaker of the House of Commons: and it is only matter of wonderment to me how the present Speaker, who is a young man (comparatively,) and has evidently been used to active life, can bear it at all. I have noticed, however, that he seizes every possible opportunity to indulge in the healthful exercise of riding on horseback. The judges in the courts of law, whose sedentary occupation is similar to that of the Speaker, do not generally seem to adopt this rule, with the exception of Lord Denman, who has always been an active man.

The next quality required is perfect command of temper, and a mind ever on the watch to calm and regulate the proceedings of the House. No one who is not in the habit of going there often can conceive what a difficult task this is. There are some strange, pertinacious spirits in that assembly, who have no notion whatever or the fitness of things: talk they will, even though the House be in an uproar. If this be a bore to the House, how much the more so must it be to the Speaker; he who is doomed to sit and hear every variety of dullness and folly, from four o'clock in the day until midnight, and far into the morning? Yet, not only must he do violence to his own feelings by listening himself, but he must also see that justice be done, even to the most infirm twaddler or the most empty driveller. Again, when quarrels arise between members, a great responsibility rests upon the Speaker. He is responsible that no ulterior consequences arise. Yet he cannot so far The Right Honourable Charles Shaw Lefevre, restrain the liberty of speech as to prevent members who held the office of Speaker of the last Parliament, from exhibiting their pugnacious intentions. Much and who, I believe, will be re-elected without opponicety and tact are required, in order to seize the ex-sition, possesses in a very considerable degree, the act moment when he can interfere without compromising the honour of any individual.

qualifications which I have above described as being required for the office. His conduct while in the But a qualification still more difficult to acquire, chair gave very general satisfaction; and even were and which few men, indeed, would care to make his re-election to be opposed, it would not be on acthemselves masters of, is a thorough knowledge of count of any objection to him personally, but because all the forms and practice of the House-of its con- the election of the Speaker has usually, in complistitutional history, as bearing on suggested innova-ance with (I think) an absurd, and certainly an extions of all precedents for any and every difficulty that may arise. Very few men would voluntarily undergo the drudgery whith such a Parliamentary education requires. Hence the singular fact, that there are not more than two men in the whole six hundred and fifty-eight, upon whom the eye of the House would be fixed should the present Speaker, from any cause whatever, vacate the chair. The labour and self-denial required in order to perfection in this difficult and ungrateful kind of study, no one can conceive. It is still worse when a man is responsi

pensive custom, been made a party question-a mere trial of strength. Few men that have occupied the chair have been more liked by the House. His interferences in personal quarrels have rather taken the shape of friendly mediation than of authority; and his decisions on questions of practice and precedent have been marked by sound good sense, totally devoid of parade. While a talking member of the House he seldom rose, but then he spoke to the point, and well. He makes no pretensions to oratory, but, nevertheless, has personal advantages for public speaking, did

his ambition lie that way. His voice is clear, manly, and sonorous, and his mode of delivery plain, unaffected, but emphatic. In person, he is tall; I should say six feet high; and he carries himself with dignity. His face is dark, and also his hair, and the features are good. The general expression is handsome. Mr. Lefevre has always been a Whig, but I question whether the new features which Whiggism has recently adopted, have not somewhat abated his admiration. He represents North Hampshire, and is one of the few Whig county members whose seats have been allowed to be retained by them. Perhaps it is better for the

COOKERY FOR THE POOR.

"THE clergy are humanely endeavouring to meet the distress by the distribution of books showing how to make a meal out of a mere trifle." For this valuable information we are indebted to an Exeter paper, the Western Times, which also gives a specimen of these timely receipts, one how to make " onion-porridge:" take two quarts of water, and boil in it ten good onions; and when they are quite tender, stir in a pint of water in which four spoonfuls of flour have been well mixed: adding salt and pepper. "This dish," says the clerical cookery-book, "makes a capital supper for a labouring man or a family."

Whigs that his vote as Speaker should be neutralized, than that it should be recorded against them, as it most probably would sometimes be, in the mad career of reckless violence which they seem prepared to run. Mr. Lefevre's brother is one of the Poorlaw Commissioners. The name of Lefevre was added to the patronymic of Shaw by the father of the present representative of the family, on marrying into the family of Mr. Lefevre, a banker. Mr. Shaw Lefevre is Lieutenant-Colonel of the North Hants Yeomanry, and has represented the county, in which he is a large landed proprietor, since 1831. He was elected Speaker in 1839. LORGNETTE.

perhaps the clerical Ude, while he was showing the destitute epicure how easy it is to make soup without turtle, forgot that not the soup, but the very bread, is the thing which the pauper gourmand desiderates. Having the onion-porridge, he will still ask for bread. If the worthy parsons of Devonshire think that they have found an expedient to frustrate the Anti-Cornlaw agitation by giving the people little tracts on cookery, there never was exhibited a more innocent mistake.-Spectator.

GREEK TRAGEDY ON THE GERMAN STAGE.

WE announced some two months since that by the Unquestionably, those who condescend to the express direction of the King, they were preparing homely task of instructing the English people an art at the Court Theatre at Berlin to perform some of the of which they are profoundly ignorant-cookery- Greek tragedies, translated into German, with the perform a good service. Next to the benefactor who chorusses set to music by Mendelssohn. We now teaches how to make two blades of corn to grow in learn that the first performance, the Antigone of the place of one, is he who teaches how to get a dou- Sophocles, took place on the 29th ult.-The King ble measure of enjoyment, if not of nourishment, out and Queen, together with other branches of the of the single blade. An Italian peasant will make a Royal family, and all the distinguished persons relishing meal out of scraps that an English pauper connected with the Court, were present, and the would be pitied for gathering; a French grisette will invitations included almost every individual eminent dress a pennyworth of odds and ends in the guise of in literature or art, ladies as well as gentlemen. The a "made dish" fit for a prince. Grant that more nou- theatre was consequently filled to overflowing, and rishment does not lurk in the compound than in the the railway trains running between Berlin and raw material, it does not follow that more nourishment Potsdam on the night of the performance were is not to be drawn from it. One source of wholesome-scarcely able to convey the numerous passengers. ness in food, as any physiologist can explain, is its pa-The impression produced by the performance exceedlateableness and the contentment with which it is ed, it is said, all that the most earnest admirers of the eaten. Food swallowed like physic, merely as the classic poet had anticipated. The theatre was fitted means of existence, has but an indifferent chance of up as far as possible in conformity with the arrangebeing turned to proper account in the stomach; to say ment of the ancient theatres; the most minute nothing of the tangible difference in point of comfort attention to classic correctness was correctly observed between merely bolting a tasteless meal as a duty and in the dresses and decorations. The composition of relishing a discreetly-seasoned mess as a pleasure. the chorusses afforded a fine opportunity for the Cookery, one of the distinctive arts of mankind, is al-exercise of Mendelssohn's talent, and the composer most voluntarily ceded in England as a monopoly for the rich. We are told, however, that the worthy clergymen bring forward their little cookery-books "to meet the distress!" Perhaps theirs is the strangest of all remedies ever opposed to a distress so widely spread as to be fairly accounted national. Even the Princess, whose question "why people who could not get bread did not eat pastry" has been so often quoted, knew better than to propose a mere cookery-book as a substitute for the staff of life. The onion-porridge may be a savoury slop-almost vapid enough for a side-dish in an early course at a clerical dinner; but it is not to be supposed that there is much nourishment in four spoonfuls of flour, ten onions, and five pints of water. Probably, bread to be eaten with it is understood; but the very gravamen of the "distress" is the difficulty of procuring bread. Bread is so much a matter of course at decent tables, like salt, that

has successfully imitated the characteristics of the Greek music (at least those peculiarities which the moderns suppose to have been the characteristics of the Greek music,) in as far as they are capable of being accommodated to modern instruments, harmonies and rhythm.-Athenæum, Nov. 20.

ROBERT BURNS.

The memory of the Scottish bard has recently been revived by two events of interest: the first, the erection of a sepulchral monument to his Highland Mary (Campbell;) and the second, the death of his celebrated Clorinda, Mrs. Maclehose, at the age of eighty. A complete copy of her correspondence with the amatory bard is now expected to be published.-Literary Gazette.

From the Christian Observer. ON CROTCHETY MEN AND THEIR

COUNTERFEITS.

THERE is a general outcry against "crotchety men:"-be it so; I do not defend them; though to be sure they are for the most part a harmless, or at least not very noxious, race. Some of them furnish amusement to their neighbours, and are amused themselves; and as their crotchets do not usually come to much, society needs not be in great alarm about them. We may sometimes gaze with wonder, as our fathers did at a man going up in an air-balloon; and sometimes with a smile, as at a grown-up man blowing soap-bubbles; but then if the ascent is merely to gratify curiosity, or to be talked of, without any useful object which may justify incurring the risk, that alters the case; and also, on the other hand, if the soap-bubbler is a sedate philosopher experimenting upon light and colours.-Memento, always to keep back our wonder, our smiles, or our displeasure, till we have looked a little into the matter. If I were to write a book, the motto should be, "For further particulars inquire within."

Well then, I do not defend crotchetarians, neither do I undistinguishingly blame them. They are an illunderstood order of beings; or rather, there are so many genera, species, and varieties of them, though all nomenclated under one class,-query whether they ought to be so?-that people make great mistakes in speaking of the good or evil qualities of individuals of their respective tribes. I will try to explicate the subject.

But first I must distinguish the genuine crotchetarian from counterfeits, of which there are many. I will instance only three-The Hobbyhorsians; the Vacillationists; the Vanitarians; none of which are true crotcheters; that is per se; for of course a crochetarian, like any other man, may be vain, or vacillating, or hobbyhorsian; but this does not constitute his character as a genuine man of crotchets. (I use the words, crotchetarian, crotcheteer, and crotcheter, as equivalents.)

ble hobby, for Mr. Wilberforce would not have warranted a vicious nag to please any man;) but he could not have rightly conducted himself in the same fashion towards a crotchetarian; for his plans being sometimes good, sometimes bad, very often indifferent, and always erratic, no sober man would undertake to follow him, corn-sieve in hand, wherever he might vagrate.

But hobbyhorsians are often very useful men. They fix upon a certain idea so strongly, and press it so pertinaciously, that if it be a valuable notion, it may happen at length to be taken up by others, and be prosecuted to consummation. The weak part of the hobbyhorsian's character, provided his plan were good, is, that he urges it injudiciously and unseasonably; for if he brings it in only upon due occasion and in a befitting manner, he is not popularly said to ride so slip-slop a nag as a hobby. He is a man of fixed determination; and such men often change the course of human affairs, or impress them with their own signet. It would not be right to call Mr. Wilberforce's determination to suppress the slave-trade a hobby, as we should Mr. Attwood's anti-currency notion; nor would I say that Dr. Chalmers's opinions upon poor-laws are hobby-horsical, though I think there is a little hobby blood in their veins. Mr. Owen, of New Lanark, began riding a hobby, but it soon became metamorphosed into a dragon. Sometimes a man's hobby is no better than a child's rocking-horse; sometimes it proves, under a plausible wooden exterior, to be a Trojan horse filled with combustibles. Sometimes the pretended hobby is not a man's own property, but is seized by him out of some bye-lane to go to market upon; as Mr. O'Connell rides the wild filly "Repeal," which I do not believe he cares one straw for, except as his ambition or his pocket is benefited, by the shoutings and shillings which attend his curvetings. I do not think he has heart enough to keep a real hobby. When his pretended hobbies break their knees, and flounder in the mud, he always leaves them without compunction, in order to mount some more serviceable animal.

2. Nor is the Vacillationist a genuine crotcheteer, any more than the Crispinian. There are some men who are here to-day, there to-morrow, and nobody knows where the next day; and unreflecting people are apt to call them crotchety. But they have no real crotchets; their opinions are not fixed enough to deserve that title; they are changeful; "matter too soft a lasting stamp to bear;" and that is all that needs be said of them; unless when they happen to fall more properly under the next class to be described.

1. He is to be carefully distinguished from the Hobbyhorsian. When you meet with a man of one idea; a man who holds a certain notion, which intrudes every where, warping his judgments about all other things; a man whom every body in the House of Commons, or in a committee, or a newspaper column, or a private room, good-naturedly laughs at the moment he adresses himself to a question, knowing, begin as it may, where will it end; a man after whom the boys in the streets cry, in vernacular English, “Ecce iterum Crispinus;" he is a thorough- 3. That class is the Vanitarians. There are men going hobby horsian, but he has no claim to be called who are never of any body else's opinion; nor of a crotchetarian, any more than a man would be a their own after it has been taken up by others; and soldier because he always walked out in a red coat, or they are often called crotchety. But non constat. I a fiddler because he harped-I should say fiddled-denied the title of hobbyhorsian to the man who upon one note, without time or cadence, and necessarily without harmony or melody. The true crotcheter is a man of many crotchets; he is not a monomaniac, but mad generally, if mad he be. This distinguishes him from the Crispinian. You cannot anticipate what he is going to say; his conclusion will probably be peculiar or eccentric; but it will not always be the same. Mr. Wilberforce once assigned as his reason for contributing a guinea to some object-I forget what-that it was pressed upon him by a friend who made it his hobby, and he always liked, he said, to give a man's hobby a feed of corn. Good; (provided, as in this case, it was a respecta

only pretends to ride a hobby; and I deny the title of crotchetarian to the man who only affects to be crotchety. Curtius always differs in opinion from every person in company; if they all say Yes, he says No; and to-morrow, if another company says to the same question No, he tacks about and says Yes. He was once a Whig and "something more,' he then became a violent Tory; and he is now a more violent Radical; that is, he was so last Monday; but I cannot be certain what he professes to be to-day-Thursday. If persons of his own class of station generally approve a plan, he denounces it; if they disapprove, he adopts it; but he has scarcely

embraced his new friends before he throws them off in turn. Ignorant persons call him crotchety; but he is not honest enough to be so. All he wants is to be somebody; he would be lost in a crowd; but by being in a minority of one he is sure to be gazed at; and he would go to the pillory rather than not be talked of. He is a sheer vanitarian. He resembles the pretended crotcheteer in one thing, namely, that his words and his heart do not go together; but he differs in this, that he works his ends, by always affecting to find every body wrong; so that he thus sets up for being a much wiser man than others; whereas the pretended crotcheteer wishes to bring others to his mind for ulterior purposes, and is not content with being stared at. This distinction would, however, require to be further considered in a regular treatise on Vanitarians; for the Vanitarian is often mercenary also; and his pretended crotchets, though they may seem meant only to show his consequence, are intended, by means of said consequence, to work out further aims. But, in any case, he is not a genuine crotcheteer; for a genuine crotcheteer is at least honest. So much for negations and ground-clearing; now for positives. The true crotcheter then is a man of many crotchets, and who believes what he professes. There are two divisions of such men; crotcheteers by defect, and crotcheteers by excess; or, for short, minus and plus crotcheteers.

In every body of men, women and children; in all nations, trades, and societies, there is a sort of average standard of thought and feeling; which may be called the "common-sense " of that community. It may not be sound-sense; and it might even be regarded, among persons of other education, habits, and prepossessions, as strange or irrational; but it is, in its own locality, conventional sense; and this conventional or common sense passes among the multitude for good sense. In Sparta, it was common sense to steal if you could do so without detection; in India it was common sense to burn widows; and it was argued before a commercial jury in London, some years ago, that an opulent tea-dealer was deranged, because he spent part of his money in adorning a country-house, and part of his time in enjoying it, when he might have been enlarging his wealth in Philpot Lane; thus exhibiting not only an utter want of common sense, but even of rationality.

Now a person may be mentally either above or below par in the circle in which he moves; and if so, he is in danger of becoming a crothetarian, either by excess or defect. The common sense of any community is for the most part good sense, if only we admit the soundness of the principle recognized by that community. Mr. Cunningham has shewn exceedingly well, that only grant that men have no souls, and much of their conduct, which would be absurd and irrational upon the contrary hypothesis, becomes congruous and sensible. And so in the case of the Lacedæmonian, the Hindoo, and the out-andout London money-seeker. Men do many things in corporations, cabinets, prisons, committees, shops, courts of law, palaces, and markets, which are well approved in the locality as deeds proper for the occasion, but which are not so regarded elsewhere. The stream is not expected to rise higher than the fountain; and if it does not run much lower, it keeps nearly to the conventional-I do not mean the real-level of good sense. Popular opinions and prejudices may be absurd or wicked; but the majority of men act pretty reasonably upon them. So also a body of persons may mean to do rightly; they may be conscientious and pains-taking; and their proceedings MARCH, 1842.—MUSEUM.

41

may be, upon the whole, wise and good; and when differences of opinion arise among them, the " common-sense" of the brotherhood at length may prevail, and the results be in the main beneficial. Crotchety men are either those who cannot rise to the conventional standard, or those who peer above it. The natural eye-sight, taking the mass of mankind, has an average focal length, and we regulate things accordingly; as, for instance, the size of writing and printing; but some persons are shortsighted, and cannot take in a sufficient range of ordinary print when brought to that nearness to the eye which they require; and others are long-sighted, and find the angle subtended by ordinary print too small for distinctness at their focal distance; to adjust which difficulties, the former require diminishing glasses, and the latter magnifying, in order to enable them to see with their neighbours. Society is too long-sighted for the minus, and too short-sighted for the plus, crotcheteer; too stunted for the giant, and too tall for the dwarf.

It is scarcely possible for a score of persons to act together without soon finding that they have a minus and perhaps a plus among them. The former, by some mental defect, cannot rise to the level of the arguments which convince his colleagues; the latter soars beyond them.

But to be more particular :-the crotcheteer by defect teazes all around him with petty obliquities and narrow-minded prejudices; sentences are not worded to his taste; there is a comma too much or a semicolon too little; this plan will not work; that screw is loose; some objection wants answering; he cannot see his way here, he cannot feel it there; there is a knot in every bull-rush; he is not satisfied; something else would be better; in short, he is so fantastical, that nothing convinces and nothing pleases him. You appeal to his common sense, to his prudence, to his sagacity, but all in vain. If you set him right to-day, he will be wrong to-morrow; and whatever be the orbit, while others revolve quietly in it, he goes off at a tangent, for want of centripetal force. When you knock at the door of his understanding, there seems to be nobody at home; by his crotchets he would mar the best scheme; he hinders every other man at the capstan by being unable to grasp the bar and move on with the gang; no man calls out so loudly "Hear, hear," when something unusually absurd is spoken; or pummels a platform with his stick or umbrella so vehemently when some weak or wild brother proposes a scheme which his wiser colleagues have rejected. He has no power of grasping broad principles, and pursuing them to their general results, unmindful of a few incidental rubs and failures; but he higgles, and niggles, and wriggles, and consummates nothing; and in this he stands in marked contrast with the hobbyhorsian, who, by concentration, often achieves things considerable.

The crotcheteer by excess is the reverse of all this, though the two characters are apt to be confounded; as well they may; for if a man differs in opinion from ten other men, they will conclude that he does not fully comprehend their arguments: that is, that he is a crotcheteer by defect-whereas it may be that he sees all they see, and a great deal more, and therefore he differs from them; but as he differs they of course account him less enlightened than themselves; or if they are obliged to acknowledge the superiority of his powers generally, they solve the difficulty by whispering that "he is an odd man," or "has got a twist," or, in one word, is

"crotchety." There are in every community individuals who rise above the average standard of thought, intelligence, and foresight of their compeers; they take a larger range of view; they think what the tree will be when they sow the seed; they abhor the commonplaces which pass for maxims of infallible wisdom among their companions; and frighten their sober neighbours by alarming innovations.

Now it may be that the crotcheteer of this class is wrong, and his less sagacious neighbours are right; and it might even be so in the case of the minus crotcheteer. But this is not the present consideration; all that we have now to do with, is the simple fact, that there are men who are crooked billets in every bundle; and whether they are too long or too short, they do not bind up well with the heap. Now what is to be done practically in such cases? Be it observed then, that crotcheteers, whether of the negative or positive class, differ in temper and habits; their conscience may be tender or complying; they may be simple or politic, diffident or bold, flexible or pertinacious; and these moral and physical characteristics will modify their conduct, so that a man's being crotchety does not prove what use he will make of his crotchets. Sometimes the weakminded colleague is gentle and modest, and though not convinced, easily yields; but sometimes he is dogged, and there is no resource but outvoicing and outvoting him. Sometimes he is a man of no conscience, and only considers which way the wind blows; at others his conscience is morbid, and, with the best intentions, he gives trouble and does mischief, because others will not regulate their views by his. Similar differences are seen in the crotcheteer by excess; for a man may have a decided and a true conviction that he sees farther than others, and may, look with secret contempt at their defects; and yet may not have nerve or perseverance to stand out boldly or long against the general opinion; but for the most part, the yielding of crotcheteers of this class is more from policy than timidity; or perhaps from scorn, regarding the mass of men as fools whom it were vain to attempt to enlighten, or as tools which it is best to employ in what they are fit for, without hoping to put a fine edge upon them.

never knew a man black-balled for crotchets, if either by the good or the bad motives just assigned, he kept his crotchets from being troublesome; but what is to be done when a crotchety man will always "say his say," and, either from temper or conscience, will never yield till all men act, and affect to think, with him? I say temper or conscience, not as classing evil with good, but because conscience, not regulated by judgment, may force a weak-minded man to pester the world with his eccentric notions, and to be "wiser than seven men that can render a reason."

That facetious divine, Mr. (I beg pardon, the Reverend) Canon Sidney Smith, says that every statesman, every public man, ought to keep a foolometer. I reprobate the appellation-it is not Christian-but there is some wisdom, as well as merely wit, in the meaning. The leaders of mankind may, from their education, habits, station, and the fact that they have risen to posts of command, be in general supposed able, if they choose, to take more comprehensive views of the affairs placed under their cognizance, than that very superficial personage entitled "public opinion," or what is called "vox populi," which certainly is not ordinarily "vox Dei." A man of powerful mind, who works his way to a conclusion by books, by deep musings, and by intercourse with highly-developed intellects, may, without knowing it, so far overshoot the heads of the multitude, that, in attempting what appears to him good, he may inflict much injury; and this, even supposing that his project is intrinsically beneficial. Now there are men who accurately represent the class to which they belong; they are the knights of the shire of their community, and embody its notions, its prejudices, its virtues, and its vices. If a joiner has to construct a piece of furniture, or an engineer a machine, he must examine the quality of the materials which he is to employ; it is not all the same to the former what wood, or to the latter what metal he shall use. Phidias would have planned his works in vain, if, instead of marble, he had only rotten-stone to chisel. Now, if the crotcheteer by excess considers himself a Phidias, (I do not say that he is so, he may egregiously deceive himself,) let him remember that he cannot at once mould men to his opinions; and, better than do irreparable mischief by his notions, he would do well to consider-I will not use Sidney Smith's word-the average intellect, and even the prejudices, of those with whom, or upon whom, he is to work. Changes which outrun feelings, principles, and habits, too often recoil, and cause an explosion. I might carry the remark very far, for I do not even know that it would be wise that is, that it would be right or Christian-to compel a heathen nation by force to destroy its images, and pretend to keep a sabbath; belief should go first, and practice should follow it.

Of both the classes of crotcheteers, those who, after a reasonable effort, give way to others with modesty and honesty, may, notwithstanding their crotchets, be practicable and useful men; and those who give way from policy are in general well-esteemed, though they little deserve to be so; but a really conscientious and persevering crotcheteer is altogether unmanageable. I have never known a man blackballed simply for being crotchety. If he was bland; if he was not pertinacious; if he preferred peace to war; or even if he were of that worse class that would sacrifice his opinions (though crotchety opinions) rather than injure his interests; nay, if being I have tripped aside into a digression; but I have of the plus character he scorned men too much to throughout meant my paper, under light guise, to argue with them; he might in any of these cases touch upon serious subjects; to be practically useful. find admittance as an odd but not troublesome ani- Let us not set down every truth which is new to us, mal; perhaps, indeed, he would not even be deemed as a crotchet, as certain ancient objectors to the Goscrotchety; for though by our definition it is having pel did when they accounted an apostle a "babbler." crotchets that makes a crotcheteer; it is by incon- Nor let the crotcheteer be too confident in his notions, veniently protruding them that a man gets that cha- but let him condescend to listen with fairness to the racter. And here perhaps the definition may be carp- arguments of other men. Again: let those whose ed at, on the ground that by a crotchety man might opinions are not crotchets, but solid truths, take heed be meant a man of crotchety habits, as well as of as to the manner in which they urge them; and let crotchety opinions; but every author may say in what them mix tenderness in their dealing with the crotsense he uses words, and I use the above as above chets, or what they consider such, of the weak-mindstated. But what I was about to say was, that Ied and unstable. It might seem irreverent to append,