them; nor so clear in their convictions, as one would think to hear 'em
lay down the law in the pulpit. They used to lead the intelligence of
their parishes; now they do pretty well if they keep up with it, and they
are very apt to lag behind it. Then they must have a colleague. The old
minister thinks he can hold to his old course, sailing right into the
wind's eye of human nature, as straight as that famous old skipper John
Bunyan; the young minister falls off three or four points and catches the
breeze that left the old man's sails all shivering. By and by the
congregation will get ahead of him, and then it must, have another new
skipper. The priest holds his own pretty well; the minister is coming
down every generation nearer and nearer to the common level of the useful
citizen,--no oracle at all, but a man of more than average moral
instincts, who, if he knows anything, knows how little he knows. The
ministers are good talkers, only the struggle between nature and grace
makes some of 'em a little awkward occasionally. The women do their best
to spoil 'em, as they do the poets; you find it very pleasant to be
spoiled, no doubt; so do they. Now and then one of 'em goes over the dam;
no wonder, they're always in the rapids.

By this time our three ladies had their faces all turned toward the
speaker, like the weathercocks in a northeaster, and I thought it best to
switch off the talk on to another rail.

How about the doctors?--I said.

--Theirs is the least learned of the professions, in this country at
least. They have not half the general culture of the lawyers, nor a
quarter of that of the ministers. I rather think, though, they are more
agreeable to the common run of people than the men with black coats or
the men with green bags. People can swear before 'em if they want to,
and they can't very well before ministers. I don't care whether they
want to swear or not, they don't want to be on their good behavior.
Besides, the minister has a little smack of the sexton about him; he
comes when people are in extremis, but they don't send for him every time
they make a slight moral slip, tell a lie for instance, or smuggle a silk
dress through the customhouse; but they call in the doctor when a child
is cutting a tooth or gets a splinter in its finger. So it does n't mean
much to send for him, only a pleasant chat about the news of the day; for
putting the baby to rights does n't take long. Besides, everyb