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in Christendom. On one occasion, meeting a distin- 

 guished and most learned divine of the Lutheran 

 faith, who did not know him, he asked for informa- 

 tion touching some point of belief, when the gentle- 

 man replied, I know not where you will find an 

 answer, unless it be in a sheet published by some 

 Dr. Alexander, of Baltimore, which is the most won- 

 derful paper that has ever met my eye. On one 

 occasion, he submitted to me a sermon, which he had 

 composed merely to see how he could manage it ; and 

 for beauty of order, purity of language, copiousness of 

 thought, and elevation of sentiment, it was a noble 

 production strikingly original, and yet thoroughly 

 churchly in its tone. He was, perhaps, the best can- 

 onist of his day. The history of the Prayer Book 

 was understood by him as perfectly as by any other 

 man of his age. The Concordance is proof of this 

 assertion. 



There is a popular impression, which many men of 

 science have endorsed, that such limitless range of 

 study engenders superficiality, which is ranging every 

 where, but never sounding the depths of anything 

 and perhaps this impression is in the main well 

 founded. For rare genius is the rarest of all God's 

 creations. But each case must stand on its own 

 merits. There is no Procrustes bed, on which you 

 can stretch genius, so as to make it suit your precon- 

 ceived theories. Superficiality must be submitted to 

 the actual test of experiment. It is not, and never can 

 be, the result of theory. The diffusion of mental forces 

 may weaken the vigor of some ; but it would be a 

 very illogical inference to conclude, that it would be 

 productive of a like result in all. Dr. Alexander 

 attempted many things but the peculiarity of his 

 genius consisted .in this, that he never attempted, 



