ANECDOTES OF MR. PALMER. 127 



I will now dismiss the inferior orders of creation, 

 and fill the remainder of my sheet with some anecdotes 

 that will make you better acquainted with Mr. Pal- 

 mer's character. When he was first presented to the 

 living he now enjoy s^, ignorance and vice prevailed to 

 a lamentable extent amongst his parishioners. His 

 first care was to make himself beloved by the exercise 

 of every kind office, and to alleviate, as much as pos- 

 sible, their temporal wants. Having gained their af- 

 fections, he began to give them advice as a friend; 

 and by the slow but powerful influence of example, 

 united with precept, enlightened and instructed their 

 minds. The interest he took in their affairs, the con- 

 descending and sympathetic visits that both he and 

 Mrs. Palmer frequently paid to their neighbours of all 

 classes, endeared them greatly, not to the parish only, 

 but to those who lived beyond its boundaries. General 

 esteem was followed by a degree of respect approach- 

 ing to veneration. As he is far more desirous of pro- 

 moting the cause of piety and virtue, than of obtaining 

 the reputation of an orator, his discourses are plain 

 and instructive ; enforcing the example of our Divine 

 Master, rather than displaying his learning on abstract 

 subjects that his congregation do not understand : so 

 that the meanest capacity may go home the wiser and 

 better for the lesson delivered from the pulpit. The 

 great aim of his life is, to discharge conscientiously 



