DEFORMITY. 45 



neither his doctrine nor his devotion 

 struck me to be of that character which 

 was likely to attract many followers. Yet 

 he was what the world would call a clever, 

 and was by no means indisposed to be an 

 agreeable man. Fluent in his conversation, 

 and well up in all the topics of the day, he 

 was better calculated, I thought, for the 

 social board than for the more sober dis- 

 play of his elocution in the pulpit. 



Nature had cheated him of his fair pro- 

 portion, and had sent him into the world 

 with one hand deformed, which in some 

 measure accounts for his having been 

 brought up for the ministry, as that de- 

 formity incapacitated him for being a me- 

 chanic although it did not prevent his 

 trying his hand at driving four horses, 

 which he now and then attempted till 

 one evening, turning a sharp corner in the 

 village of Denver, his infirmity caused him 

 to blunder: an overturn was the result, 

 which put an end to his advancement in 



