But let us give a slight sketch of the good Father, as he sat with his little tight-fitting black cap upon his head, looking like one half of a negro melon. The dress was insignificant—mean—out of the way, which is worse. The plain cassock and bands, the scapulary and the cross, and the grand three-cornered hat, had not surely much to recommend the individual member of the profession. There was no trickery of dress. There was no superfluous ornament. Even the assumption of manner was repressed, and, as far as I can recollect, he always seemed to remember sensitively, that a priest in the chair or the confessional derived whatever authority he possessed from a higher source, which conferred none upon him as an individual. The reverse of this feeling is the crying sin of the priesthood of all the creeds I know, and especially of his own. Most men would listen reverently to the expounders of God’s will, when they are expounding his will, if they would not carry their _cathedra_ into the drawing-room or the parlor with them. It is very wise, indeed, to make a marked distinction between the minister and the man, and still more wise to make a marked distinction between the functions of the minister and the man; for where the two are blended together—either through the stupidity of the people or the arrogance of the priest—it will be found nine times out of ten that the weaknesses of the man (not to notice vices or crimes) overwhelm the qualities of the teacher. Amongst a nation, indeed, who, as a nation, acknowledge no authority but themselves, either in matters civil, politic or religious—where every man is at liberty to set up his own little God Almighty in his garden, and to worship him after what fashion he pleases—this distinction is not so necessary; for each minister being chosen by the flock which he has to instruct, must know beforehand tolerably well what is the sort of pabula best suited to their palates, while the flock, on their part, having chosen their man, with their eyes very wide open, must either stultify themselves, or cry him up as one of the bright lights of the age. If not, why did they choose him to light them? They become as much interested in his personal as in his public character—for it is very disagreeable for an elder of a congregation, unless he have some personal quarrel with his dear friend, the minister, to lay his hand upon his heart and say, “I have been grievously mistaken”—and many a small offense—nay, many a great one in the pastor is smoothed over and polished with the varnish-vanity of a loving congregation, who adore themselves in the minister they have selected, and even in the very church are worshiping themselves, in him, instead of the Deity. Of all sorts of idolatry in the world—and there are many—surely the worst in the eyes of a pure Being must be self idolatry.