insisted on my going to see it. It will hold about 1,000 people.
All the pews are cushioned and lined, and the place has a decided air
of aristocracy about it. The school-room, the lecture-room, the vestry,
&c., were very complete and convenient. "How strange," I observed to my
friend, "that you should so far exceed us in the comfort of your places
of worship, and at the same time be so far behind us in domestic
comforts." "_That_" said he, "was the principle of the Puritans,--the
house of God first, their own after." I ventured to ask him what
salaries ministers in New York generally received. He told me from
1,000 to 4,000 dollars, or from 200_l._ to 800_l._ "My own," he added,
"is 2,000 dollars." We were now not far from the New York University.
"You must go and see that," said he. I went, but saw nothing particular
except the library, empty lecture-rooms, and chapel,--no professors. My
friendly guide pointed to a portrait of Lord Lyndhurst, told me with
evident pride that he was a Yankee, and marvelled at my ignorance of
the fact.

From time to time I had given him hints that I was afraid of being too
late for dinner at my lodgings; and when the sight-seeing was at last
ended, he very coolly and complacently said, "Now, if you really think
you are too late for dinner at your place, I shall be under the
_necessity_ of asking you to go and take a plate with me." Those were
the _ipsissima verba_. I could scarcely keep my gravity; but I replied,
"Thank you, sir; I want to go to the centre of the city, and I can
easily get a dinner at any eating-house." He both nodded and expressed
an entire concurrence, and seemed to think it an _admirable_
arrangement. In parting, he pressed me to preach for him on the
following Thursday, but I declined. The next day I was told, on
unquestionable authority, that two or three years ago one of the elders
of this gentleman's church, meeting a man from South America whom he
took to be a mixture of Spaniard and Indian, requested his company to
church. The stranger assented, and sat with him in his pew. He liked
the service, became interested, and went again and again. At last it
was whispered that he was a "Nigger,"--_i.e._ had a slight mixture of
African blood in him. The next week a meeting of the Session was held,
at which it was unanimously resolved that the intruder's entrance into
the body of the church must be prohibited. Two men were stationed at
the door for that purpose. The stran