cumulated cloud of smoke, he exclaimed in a slow and measured tone, "As
I was telling you just now, my good chap, I have always been an enemy to
humbug."

When I awoke from my reverie the Reverend Mr. Platitude was quitting the
apartment.

"Who is that person?" said I to my entertainer, as the door closed behind
him.

"Who is he?" said my host; "why, the Rev. Mr. Platitude."

"Does he reside in this neighbourhood?"

"He holds a living about three miles from here; his history, as far as I
am acquainted with it, is as follows. His father was a respectable
tanner in the neighbouring town, who, wishing to make his son a
gentleman, sent him to college. Having never been at college myself, I
cannot say whether he took the wisest course; I believe it is more easy
to unmake than to make a gentleman; I have known many gentlemanly youths
go to college, and return anything but what they went. Young Mr.
Platitude did not go to college a gentleman, but neither did he return
one; he went to college an ass, and returned a prig; to his original
folly was superadded a vast quantity of conceit. He told his father that
he had adopted high principles, and was determined to discountenance
everything low and mean; advised him to eschew trade, and to purchase him
a living. The old man retired from business, purchased his son a living,
and shortly after died, leaving him what remained of his fortune. The
first thing the Reverend Mr. Platitude did, after his father's decease,
was to send his mother and sister into Wales to live upon a small
annuity, assigning as a reason that he was averse to anything low, and
that they talked ungrammatically. Wishing to shine in the pulpit, he now
preached high sermons, as he called them, interspersed with scraps of
learning. His sermons did not, however, procure him much popularity; on
the contrary, his church soon became nearly deserted, the greater part of
his flock going over to certain dissenting preachers, who had shortly
before made their appearance in the neighbourhood. Mr. Platitude was
filled with wrath, and abused Dissenters in most unmeasured terms.
Coming in contact with some of the preachers at a public meeting, he was
rash enough to enter into argument with them. Poor Platitude! he had
better have been quiet, he appeared like a child, a very infant, in their
grasp; he attempted to take shelter under his college learning, but
found, to his dismay, that his opponents knew more Greek