To tell the truth, my philosopher could read but indifferently well, and when he indulged in such exercises, as "of a Sunday," liked the print to be large and black. As the halfpenny papers in no way pander to such luxurious tastes in their readers, he was fain to take his news second-hand, by word of mouth, thereby materially increasing its romance and variety. One day, _à propos_ of some flowers he was to take to the church for Easter decorations, I asked him whether he was a churchman himself. "No," he said slowly, stopping short and watching me somewhat anxiously to seethe effect of this pronouncement, "I goes to chapel, they ’ollers more, and ’tis more loively loike—I bin to church, I ’ave, don’t you think as ’ow I ’aven’t sampled ’em both careful—but Oi be gettin’ a holdish man, an’ them curicks is that weakly an’ finnicken in their ways, it don’t seem to do me no sort o’ good nohow. Not as I’ve nothin’ to say agen ’em, pore young gen’lemen; they means well, but they be that afraid of the sound of their own voices, and they looks that thin and mournful—I can’t away with ’em." Here he shook his head sadly, as though overcome with melancholy at the mere recollection. "You are quite right to go where you feel you will get most good," I said meekly. "Is Mr. Blank a very powerful preacher?" Williams (that was his name) smiled a slow, crafty smile, shutting one eye with something the expression of a gourmand who holds a glass of good port between himself and the light. "Well, I don’t know as I should go so fur as to say as ’e’s powervul, but ’e do ’oller an’ thump the cushion as do do yer ’art good to see, an’ ’e do tell us plainish where them’ll go as bain’t ther to yer ’im, but I bain’t sure as ’e’s powervul. The powervullest preacher I ever ’ear was Fairford way at a hopen-air meetin’—an’ ’e was took up next day for stealin’ bacon!" Here he returned to his digging with the air of one who had said the last word and could brook no further interruptions. Regarding politics, Williams was even more guarded in his statements: I could never discover to which side he belonged, even at a time when party feeling ran particularly high, as our town had been in the throes of two Parliamentary elections within the year. He seemed to regard the whole of the proceedings with a tolerant sort of amusement—tolerance was ever a feature of his mental attitude towards life generally. But as to stepping down, into the arena and taking sides!—such a course was far from one of his philosophical and analytic temperament. He listened to both sides with a gracious impartiality that I have no doubt sent each canvasser away equally certain that his was the side which would receive the listener’s "vote and interest."