344 LEAVES THEY HAVE TOUCHED. 



*' Present or absent." — Some remarks of Lord Houghton, in one of 

 lais recently published " Monographs, Personal and Social," will help 

 to an understanding of Sydney Smith, and remove some prejudices 

 In relation to him. At the beginning of the present century, a man 

 of humorous temperament in the pulpit or desk, was by no means 

 held to be out of place. " It needs no argument," Lord Houghtori 

 says, " to prove that susceptibilities on the score of ii'reverence 

 increase in proportion to the prevalence of doubt and scepticism. 

 When essential facts cease to be incontrovertible, they are no longer 

 safe from the humour of contrasts and analogies. It is thus that the 

 secular use of Scripture alhision was more freqiient in the days of 

 simple belief in inspiration, than in our times of linguistic and his- 

 torical criticism. Phrases and figures wei-e then taken as freely out 

 of sacred as out of classical literature ; and even characters as gross 

 and ludicrous as some of Fielding's clergy were not looked upon as 

 satire against the Church." The question may fairly be asked. Lord 

 Houghton thinks, " Why should Sydney Smith not have made quite 

 as good a bishop as he was a parish priest and canon of St. Paul's, 

 The temperament which, in his own words, made him always live in 

 the Present and the Future, and look at the Past as so much dirty 

 linen, was eminently favourable to his fit understanding and full 

 accomplishment of whatever work he had to do. There has been no 

 word of adverse criticism," Lord Houghton says, "on his parochial 

 administration, and he has left the best recollections of the diligence 

 and scrupulous care with 'which he fulfilled the duties in connection 

 with the Cathedral of St. Paul's." 



I have myself a "personal recollection of Sydney Smith, associated 

 with St. Paul's. I there once heai-d him deliver a most touching and 

 useful discourse on the Fifth Commandment, and I was pleased some 

 years afterwards, to find it printed in a volume of his published ser- 

 mons. I am thus able to give some of the words of great truth and 

 soberness which it fell to my lot to hear Sydney Smith utter. 

 *' There are little sacrifices" he said, "of daily occui-rence, which in a 

 series of years, contribute as materially to the happiness of a parent, 

 and which, because they are obscure, and have no swelling sentiments to 

 support them, are more difficult for a continuation than more splendid 

 actions. Every man has little infirmities of temper and disposition 

 which requii'e forgiveness ; peculiarities whicli should be managed ; 

 prejudices which should be avoided ; innocent habits which should 

 be indulged ; fixed opinions which should be treated with respect ; 



