44 AN INDEPENDENT. 



cimen he was of the eccentricities of our 

 nature. Should a naturalist or ornithologist 

 meet with one of the feathered tribe 

 whose distinctive features he cannot re- 

 cognize in consequence of their partaking 

 of the marks of more than one species 

 or family, he immediately sets it down 

 as a hybrid, or a mixture of two diffe- 

 rent species ; a botanist does the same 

 with plants ; and I do not think I can better 

 illustrate my view of this rara avis than by 

 adopting the same classification. No one 

 would have taken him for a minister 

 of the Gospel, either from his dress, his 

 manners, his conversation, or his habits; 

 indeed, away from the scene of his 

 ministration, he would have passed for 

 anything but a meek and lowly successor 

 of the Apostles. 



Nevertheless he was such, of the sect 

 called Independents; and, being at Lynn, 

 I did not lose an opportunity of witnes- 

 sing his performance in the pulpit, when 



