PERSONAL 127 



After jokingly passing a favourable criticism on 

 his own production, he instanced the case of a 

 clergyman he had known very well in former days 

 who had passed a somewhat similar criticism, but 

 seriously, on one of his own sermons. The said 

 clergyman had to preach for some missionary object 

 in a neighbouring parish, and, speaking of his ser- 

 mon afterwards to a mutual friend, he observed, 

 " Ah, it was indeed an excellent sermon, a most ex- 

 cellent discourse. The points, you see, were so well 

 put, the argument was so sustained throughout, and 

 the whole so well done. A proof of it," he said. " A 

 proof of it ! I went to church meaning only to give 

 five shillings to the collection, but it was so powerful, 

 so weighty, so convincing, I was obliged to give ten 

 shillings. I was indeed ! I was indeed ! " 



As another phase of this same faculty, it may be 

 added that he enjoyed light and diverting passages 

 with those he knew in various callings in life. He 

 used to record, for instance, how he once went into 

 his tailor's shop in York as if in a state of great 

 annoyance, and requested that he might at once see 

 the master of the establishment. Mr. H., who was 

 as polite and competent a tradesman as any in the 

 city, soon appeared, whereupon Mr. Morris, with the 

 blackest looks that he could command for the occa- 

 sion, said that he was sorry to have to make a great 

 complaint with regard to the last coat that had been 

 made for him ; indeed, he could not understand how 

 Mr. H. could have sent him such an article as this 

 one proved to be. Mr. H. expressed the utmost 



