516 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE LATE REV. DR CHALMERS. 
ludicrous combination of circumstances, and narrated them with great effect. 
One of the most amusing scenes I remember, was his own description of what 
happened at Manchester when he had consented to preach a sermon for some 
public object at a large chapel in that town. He had not been thinking about 
the matter after he had given his consent to preach ; but his eye was attracted by 
seeing his own name in a printed paper, like an immense play-bill, posted on the 
walls all about the town. This was a programme of the ceremonial for the day. 
There were to be prayers, anthems, choruses from Handel’s Oratorios, and a sermon 
by the celebrated Dr CHatmers of Edinburgh! Excessively annoyed at all this 
display he refused to take any part, or to preach on the occasion. The directors 
expostulated, and represented what would be the effects of his withdrawal, and 
the disappointment of the public. The matter was compromised, and Dr 
CHALMERS was to sit in the vestry till the proper time for him to come out and 
preach his sermon. But his troubles then only began, for, unfortunately, an an- 
them, with full instrumental accompaniments, was appointed to follow the ser- 
mon. The orchestra being placed immediately behind the pulpit, and more occu- 
pied with anticipations of their own performance than with anything else, the 
musicians annoyed and disturbed the preacher through the whole sermon by their 
preparations and preliminaries for the grand chorus, “ actually,” as the Doctor 
exclaimed, “ tuning their very trombones close at my ear before I had finished.” 
One other feature of mental constitution, and one only I will refer to; and 
it is an important one, as having its influence not only upon the imagery and orna- __ 
ment of his literary compositions, but, in some instances, upon the general cur- 
rent of his opinion and speculations, and that is his deep admiration of the beauti- | 
ful in the material universe. This admiration was intense, it amounted to a 
passion, and he evidently had exquisite enjoyment in the contemplation of Nature’s 
works, or rather, I should say, of the goodness and wisdom of the Creator, whether 
displayed in the wildness or loveliness of natural scenery, the delicate tints and 
texture of a flower, or the magnificence of the starry heavens. Hence, although 
no artist himself, he had the greatest interest and enjoyment in the society and 
conversation of artists. He delighted to hear their remarks on subjects of taste 
in connection with scenery; on the tints of the landscape, the sky, the ocean, the 
forms and varieties of clouds, the appearances most suitable for picturesque re- 
presentation, and the practical rules observed in transferring to the canvas imi- 
tations of what is in nature. Hence in his moral reasoning we find all his refer- 
ences, in the way of analogy or illustration, to the beauties and appearances of the 
natural world, expressed with so much freshness and feeling of reality. He 
always seems to be impressed with the conviction that, though a fallen world, the 
fall has chiefly affected the moral and spiritual nature of man himself; that, though 
the ground was cursed for man’s transgression, and so lost the power of support- 
ing the species without toil and labour ; yet that, in the material world around us, 











