hundred words in a sermon of a new beginner, which not one of
his hearers among a hundred could possibly understand, neither can I
easily call to mind any clergyman of my own acquaintance who is wholly
exempt from this error, although many of them agree with me in the
dislike of the thing. But I am apt to put myself in the place of the
vulgar, and think many words difficult or obscure, which they will not
allow to be so, because those words are obvious to scholars, I believe
the method observed by the famous Lord Falkland[1] in some of his
writings, would not be an ill one for young divines: I was assured by an
old person of quality who knew him well, that when he doubted whether a
word was perfectly intelligible or no, he used to consult one of his
lady's chambermaids, (not the waiting-woman, because it was possible she
might be conversant in romances,) and by her judgment was guided whether
to receive or reject it. And if that great person thought such a caution
necessary in treatises offered to the learned world, it will be sure at
least as proper in sermons, where the meanest hearer is supposed to be
concerned, and where very often a lady's chambermaid may be allowed to
equal half the congregation, both as to quality and understanding. But I
know not how it comes to pass, that professors in most arts and sciences
are generally the worst qualified to explain their meanings to those who
are not of their tribe: a common farmer shall make you understand in
three words, that his foot is out of joint, or his collar-bone broken,
wherein a surgeon, after a hundred terms of art, if you are not a
scholar, shall leave you to seek. It is frequently the same case in law,
physic, and even many of the meaner arts.

[Footnote 1: Lucius Cary, second Viscount Falkland (1610-1643), who was
killed at the battle of Newbury in the great Civil War, was a generous
patron of learning and of the literary men of his day. He was himself a
fine scholar and able writer. Clarendon has recorded his character in
the seventh book of his "History of the Great Rebellion": "A person of
such prodigious parts of learning and knowledge, of that inimitable
sweetness and delight in conversation, of so flowing and obliging an
humanity and goodness to mankind, that, if there were no other brand
upon this odious and accursed Civil War than that single loss, it must
be infamous and execrable to all posterity." Falkland has been made the
hero of a romance by Lord