It was very kind and liberal of Mr Kipperson to give Mr Primrose leave to form his own opinion of the new rector. What opinion Mr Primrose did form of the new rector we cannot say, for he was not very free in expressing his opinion of those with whom he had no common interest or sympathies, nor was he particularly and curiously observant to ascertain whether those with whom he conversed occasionally were persons of comprehensive and philosophical minds or not. He was not quite sure that he knew what was meant by the term _comprehensive_, as applied to the mind; and as to _philosophical_, if that meant loving wisdom, he himself was philosophical enough in all conscience, for he liked wise men much better than fools. In a word, the father of Penelope had quite as good an understanding as multitudes who make a great deal of prating about intellect, but he was not a man of much reading, and did not value pedantry of any kind, whether literary, scientific, fashionable or philosophical. CHAPTER XVIII. Even as Mr Kipperson predicted so it came to pass; Mr Primrose met at dinner the new rector of Smatterton. The great difference which there is between an old man and a young one, is one cause of the general common-place notion of the deterioration of the human species. It seemed a very great transition from Dr Greendale to Mr Pringle. The doctor used to be grave, sedate, yet cheerful, very placid and gentle in his manner, and towards his parishioners he wore the aspect of a father. His dress too was so venerable. He used to wear a long single-breasted coat, and he had such fine broad old-fashioned silver buckles at his knees and on his shoes; his hat too was just such a hat as a clergyman ought to wear. And when he walked out into the village he always carried under his arm an old gold-headed walking cane; for he seldom leant upon it. He walked slowly and demurely, and when the little boys and girls who met him planted themselves, according to their clumsy but sincere politeness, directly before him to make their bow or curtesy, he patted them on the head, and they felt themselves as much honoured and pleased as the alderman of some provincial borough when the king places the sword on his shoulder. And when the old people met him he talked to them, and, even more than that, he listened to their talk; he could not always understand it, but he paid attention to it and it pleased them. Sometimes he would be in a gayer and livelier mood than usual, especially if in his morning studies he had been successful in detecting, or eloquent in pointing, some irrefragable argument against the sectarians. And then, if he met any young woman of pretty and smiling looks, for there were many such in Smatterton, he would ask her when she was going to be married, and then she would laugh and try to blush, and she would go home and tell her mother what a funny man Dr Greendale was.