COMFORTABLE CONCEIT. 73 



as has ever pushed behind;" which was 

 something like saying, " it's a deal easier to 

 preach than to push." 



What a blessing to a parish is a good 

 clergyman! When I first came to Bird- 

 wood the rector lived there ; but though he 

 was a very good kind of man in his way, he 

 thought so much of himself, and preached 

 so learned, that poor folks could not under- 

 stand it, some would be asleep, and some 

 would sit with their mouths as wide open as 

 if he'd been shelling out sugar-plums, and 

 they waiting to catch them. He'd come of 

 a great family, and never knew much about 

 the poor. But he changed away afterwards 

 to somewhere else, as I heard ; and the new 

 rector brought with him for curate a middle- 

 aged gentleman, and things soon took a turn, 

 for he was always amongst us ; and the peo- 

 ple soon left off going to the dissenters' meet- 

 ing, till there was hardly a dozen left, and 

 they not the good, old, respectable folks, but 

 of that comfortable kind that think some's 

 born to be lost eternally, and some saved. 

 Of course they themselves are all of the last 

 sort, and very thankful I've heard them 

 make themselves at the others' expense ; as 



