dear brother, but
with the gypsy cral and his wife, and the gigantic Tawno, the Antinous of
the dusky people. And what was I myself? No longer an innocent child,
but a moody man, bearing in my face, as I knew well, the marks of my
strivings and strugglings, of what I had learned and unlearned;
nevertheless, the general aspect of things brought to my mind what I had
felt and seen of yore. There was difference enough it is true, but still
there was a similarity--at least I thought so,--the church, the
clergyman, and the clerk differing in many respects from those of pretty
D . . ., put me strangely in mind of them; and then the words!--by-the-
bye, was it not the magic of the words which brought the dear enchanting
past so powerfully before the mind of Lavengro? for the words were the
same sonorous words of high import which had first made an impression on
his childish ear in the old church of pretty D . . .

The liturgy was now over, during the reading of which my companions
behaved in a most unexceptional manner, sitting down and rising up when
other people sat down and rose, and holding in their hands prayer-books
which they found in the pew, into which they stared intently, though I
observed that, with the exception of Mrs. Petulengro, who knew how to
read a little, they held the books by the top, and not the bottom, as is
the usual way. The clergyman now ascended the pulpit, arrayed in his
black gown. The congregation composed themselves to attention, as did
also my companions, who fixed their eyes upon the clergyman with a
certain strange immovable stare, which I believe to be peculiar to their
race. The clergyman gave out his text, and began to preach. He was a
tall, gentlemanly man, seemingly between fifty and sixty, with greyish
hair; his features were very handsome, but with a somewhat melancholy
cast: the tones of his voice were rich and noble, but also with somewhat
of melancholy in them. The text which he gave out was the following one,
"In what would a man be profited, provided he gained the whole world, and
lost his own soul?"

And on this text the clergyman preached long and well: he did not read
his sermon, but spoke it extempore; his doing so rather surprised and
offended me at first; I was not used to such a style of preaching in a
church devoted to the religion of my country. I compared it within my
mind with the style of preaching used by the high-church rector in the
old church of pretty D