tion; and goodness
of intention will itself relax through frequent disappointment. How
desirable, then, is it, that a minister of the Gospel should be versed
in the knowledge of existing facts, and be accustomed to a wide range of
social experience! Nor is it less desirable for the purpose of
counterbalancing and tempering in his own mind that ambition with which
spiritual power is as apt to be tainted as any other species of power
which men covet or possess.

It must be obvious that the scope of the argument is to discourage an
attempt which would introduce into the Church of England an equality of
income and station, upon the model of that of Scotland. The sounder part
of the Scottish nation know what good their ancestors derived from their
Church, and feel how deeply the living generation is indebted to it.
They respect and love it, as accommodated in so great a measure to a
comparatively poor country, through the far greater portion of which
prevails a uniformity of employment; but the acknowledged deficiency of
theological learning among the clergy of that Church is easily accounted
for by this very equality. What else may be wanting there, it would be
unpleasant to inquire, and might prove invidious to determine: one
thing, however, is clear; that in all countries the temporalities of the
Church Establishment should bear an analogy to the state of society,
otherwise it cannot diffuse its influence through the whole community.
In a country so rich and luxurious as England, the character of its
clergy must unavoidably sink, and their influence be everywhere
impaired, if individuals from the upper ranks, and men of leading
talents, are to have no inducements to enter into that body but such as
are purely spiritual. And this 'tinge of secularity' is no reproach to
the clergy, nor does it imply a deficiency of spiritual endowments.
Parents and guardians, looking forward to sources of honourable
maintenance for their children and wards, often direct their thoughts
early towards the Church, being determined partly by outward
circumstances, and partly by indications of seriousness, or intellectual
fitness. It is natural that a boy or youth, with such a prospect before
him, should turn his attention to those studies, and be led into those
habits of reflection, which will in some degree tend to prepare him for
the duties he is hereafter to undertake. As he draws nearer to the time
when he will be called to these duties, he