recollect as far as my memory helps me at this distance of time." Mr. Spencer went to hear others preach, and forms his opinions of each according to his way of thinking. Here are some specimens:-- "The Bishop of Bristol preached in the morning for the schools, a sermon worthy of Plato rather than St. Paul." Another day: "Went with all speed to Craven Chapel, where I heard Irving, the Scotch minister, preach nearly two hours. I was greatly delighted at his eloquence and stout Christian doctrine, though his manner is most blameably extravagant." Another day: "I went with Mr. A---- and Miss B---- to hear Mrs. Fry perform, and was delighted with her _expounding_ to the prisoners in Newgate." He seems to advance more and more in his own religious views; and he says his father was wretched about them. He gets an opportunity of preaching in the West End of London, and writes thereupon: "O my God, I have testified thy truth to east and west in this horrid Babylon." He soon after returns home, and is so far improved that he determines to preach extempore for the future; in this he succeeds very well. What led him to this resolve was the facility with which he could maintain a conversation on religious topics for any length of time, and the rational supposition that he might do the same, as well in the pulpit as in the parlour. A letter to the Rev. Mr. Harvey, which is the only one that we have come across of those written by him at this time, gives a fair idea of the state of his mind: it was written on his return to Althorp after this London visit. "_August 3, 1826._