It may be said that this is a very nice little account squeezed into a journal, and one could not expect enthusiastic bursts about the gift of the spirit and the power of {106} the Church, in a book allotted to the bare recording of events. So be it. But there are enthusiastic exclamations about less important things in that same little book, and if ordination looked anything to Mr. Spencer than a condition _sine qua_ of his getting fixed in his future position, he would have noted it. The absence of deep religious feeling at this period of his life may account in a great measure for this coolness; but perhaps the not believing there was anything sacramental in the rite itself may give a more satisfactory explanation. To wind up the matter in a few words--he said grace for the family at dinner that evening, and then read his _novel_ quietly in his room, because the day was not favourable for any field sport. These few explanations were deemed necessary for appreciating the tenor of his life from this moment forward. It will run counter to all anticipated results in the direction of excellence, and will even go far beyond what its first evidences would warrant one to expect. He looked his position in the face at the very outset: he saw that he had souls to look after, and he knew that he could not do that without a course of consistent conduct beseeming his character. For the first few days things went on much as of old. The family were still spending the winter in Althorp, and he joined in all the pastimes by which they whiled away the short days and cheered the long nights. It was requisite, however, that the cousins and nearer relations, should see and hear George in his new position, if it were only to have something to talk about when they came to London. Accordingly, he assisted in the Communion Service on Christmas Day by administering "the cup," first to his father, and then to others. He did not "think the thing so formidable," and it wore off the apprehension he had of appearing in public sufficient for him to give his first sermon on Sunday, Dec. 29. It was on the Birth of Christ, and he says, "Althorp and Duncannon were my audience;" whether they were a whole or a part of the audience, it is not easy at this distance to discover.