secondary one--it has the
effect of so hardening their hearts, that, like those Carthaginians of
whom we have been lately reading in the volume Mr. Murdoch lent us,
they offer up their very children, souls and bodies, to the unreal,
phantom-like necessities of their circumstances."

"Have I not heard you remark, father," said Gilbert "that the change you
describe has been very marked among the ministers of our church?"

"Too marked and too striking," replied the old man; "and in affecting
the respectability and usefulness of so important a class, it has educed
a cause of deterioration, distinctly from itself, and hardly less
formidable. There is an old proverb of our country--'Better the head of
the commonality than the tail of the gentry.' I have heard you quote it,
Robert, oftener than once, and admire its homely wisdom. Now, it bears
directly on what I have to remark--the ministers of our church have
moved but one step during the last sixty years; but that step has been
an all-important one--it has been from the best place in relation to the
people, to the worst in relation to the aristocracy."

"Undoubtedly, worthy Mr. Burns," said Mr. Murdoch, "there is great
truth, according to mine own experience, in that which you affirm. I
may state, I trust, without over-boasting or conceit, my respected
friend, that my learning is not inferior to that of our neighbour the
clergyman--it is not inferior in Latin, nor in Greek, nor yet in French
literature, Mr. Burns, and probable it is he would not much court a
competition, and yet, when I last waited at the manse regarding a
necessary and essential certificate, Mr. Burns, he did not so much as
ask me to sit down."

"Ah!" said Gilbert, who seemed the wit of the family, "he is a highly
respectable man, Mr. Murdoch--he has a fine house, fine furniture, fine
carpets--all that constitutes respectability, you know; and his family
is on visiting terms with that of the laird. But his credit is not so
respectable, I hear."

"Gilbert," said the old man, with much seriousness, "it is ill with a
people when they can speak lightly of their clergymen. There is still
much of sterling worth and serious piety in the Church of Scotland; and
if the influence of its ministers be unfortunately less than it was
once, we must not cast the blame too exclusively on themselves. Other
causes have been in operation. The church, eighty years ago, was the
sole guide of opinion, and the only source of