“‘He allowed no dissenter or methodist to interfere in the instruction of the souls committed to his care: and so successful were his exertions, that he had not one dissenter of any denomination whatever in the whole parish.—Though he avoided all religious controversies, yet when age had silvered his head, and virtuous piety had secured to his appearance reverence and silent honour, no one, however determined in his hatred of apostolic descent, could have listened to his discourse on ecclesiastical history and ancient times, without thinking that one of the beloved apostles had returned to mortality, and in that vale of peace had come to exemplify the beauty of holiness in the life and character of Mr. Walker. * * * “‘Until the sickness of his wife, a few months previous to her death, his health and spirits and faculties were unimpaired. But this misfortune gave him such a shock, that his constitution gradually decayed. His senses, except sight, still preserved their powers. He never preached with steadiness after his wife’s death. His voice faltered: he always looked at the seat she had used. He could not pass her tomb without tears. He seemed when alone sad and melancholy, though still among his friends kind and good-humoured. He went to bed about twelve o’clock the night before his death. As his custom was, he went loitering and leaning upon his daughter’s arm, to examine the heavens, and meditate a few moments in the open air. “How clear the moon shines to-night!” He said those words, sighed, and lay down: at six next morning he was found a corpse. Many a tear, and many a heavy heart, and many a grateful blessing followed him to the grave.’ “My good friend,” said I, when I had finished reading to him the above beautiful extract, “I beg pardon for interrupting your narrative, but I am sure you will forgive me on account of the subject, and because I think what I have just read contains an answer to your question,—Why should we imitate the ancients rather than the moderns? When the moderns set us a better example than this, we will follow them with pleasure; but they must excuse us if we wait till then. I would say, to those who are anxious to set one age against another, and especially to magnify our own at the expense of the past, (in the lines of a great and good man,) “‘Oh! gather whencesoe’er ye safely may The help which slackening Piety requires; Nor deem that he perforce must go astray Who treads upon the footmarks of his sires.’” “They must take long strides,” replied the old man with a smile, “who put their feet in the marks left by old Robert Walker! However, to my tale once more.