51G BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE LATE BEV. DR CHALMERS. 



ludicrous combination of circumstances, and narrated them with great eifect. 

 One of the most amusing scenes I remember, was his own description of what 

 happened at Manchester when he had consented to preach a sermon for some 

 public object at a large chapel in that town. He had not been thinking about 

 the matter after he had given his consent to preach ; but his eye was attracted by 

 seeing his own name in a printed paper, like an immense play-bill, posted on the 

 walls all about the town. This was a programme of the ceremonial for the day. 

 There were to be prayers, anthems, choruses from Handel's Oratorios, and a sermon 

 by the celebrated Dr Chalmers of Edinburgh I Excessively annoyed at all this 

 display he refused to take any part, or to preach on the occasion. The directors 

 expostulated, and represented what would be the effects of his withdrawal, and 

 the disappointment of the public. The matter -was compromised, and Dr 

 Chalmers was to sit in the vestry till the proper time for him to come out and 

 preach his sermon. But his troubles then only began, for, unfortunately, an an- 

 them, with full instrumental accompaniments, was appointed to follow the ser- 

 mon. The orchestra being placed immediately behind the pulpit, and more occu- 

 pied with anticipations of their own performance than with anything else, the 

 musicians annoyed and disturbed the preacher through the whole sermon by their 

 preparations and preliminaries for the grand chorus, " actually," as the Doctor 

 exclaimed, " tuning their very trombones close at my ear before 1 had finished." 

 One other feature of mental constitution, and one only I will refer to ; and 

 it is an important one, as having its influence not only upon the imagery and orna- 

 ment of his literary compositions, but, in some instances, upon the general cur- 

 rent of his opinion and speculations, and that is his deep admiration of the beauti- 

 ful in the material universe. This admiration was intense, it amounted to a 

 passion, and he evidently had exquisite enjoyment in the contemplation of Nature's 

 works, or rather, I should say, of the goodness and wisdom of the Creator, whether 

 displayed in the wildness or loveliness of natural scenery, the delicate tints and 

 texture of a flower, or the magnificence of the starry heavens. Hence, although 

 no artist himself, he had the greatest interest and enjoyment in the society and 

 conversation of artists. He delighted to hear their remarks on subjects of taste 

 in connection with scenery ; on the tints of the landscape, the sky, the ocean, the 

 forms and varieties of clouds, the appearances most suitable for picturesque re- 

 presentation, and the practical rules observed in transferring to the canvas imi- 

 tations of what is in nature. Hence in his moral reasoning we find all his refer- 

 ences, in the way of analogy or illustration, to the beauties and appearances of the 

 natural world, expressed with so much freshness and feeling of reality. He 

 always seems to be impressed with the conviction that, though a fallen world, the 

 fall has chiefly affected the moral and spiritual nature of man himself; that, though 

 the gi-ound was cursed for man's transgression, and so lost the power of support- 

 ing the species without toil and labour ; yet that, in the material world around us, 



