tyle is very superior to that of Vidocq's, (which is
a translation) and as scores of worse books are printed annually, we
rejoice at their rescue from oblivion.]

* * * * *

THE ANECDOTE GALLERY.

* * * * *

WHITFIELD.

Remarkable instances are related of the manner in which Whitfield
impressed his hearers. A man at Exeter stood with stones in his
pocket, and one in his hand, ready to throw at him; but he dropped
it before the sermon was far advanced, and going up to him after
the preaching was over, he said, "Sir, I came to hear you with an
intention to break your head; but God, through your ministry, has
given me a broken heart." A ship-builder was once asked what he
thought of him. "Think!" he replied, "I tell you, sir, every Sunday
that I go to my parish church, I can build a ship from stem to stern
under the sermon; but, were it to save my soul, under Mr. Whitfield I
could not lay a single plank." Hume pronounced him the most ingenious
preacher he had ever heard; and said, it was worth while to go twenty
miles to hear him. But, perhaps, the greatest proof of his persuasive
powers was, when he drew from Franklin's pocket the money which that
clear, cool reasoner had determined not to give; it was for the
orphan-house at Savannah. "I did not," says the American philosopher,
"disapprove of the design; but as Georgia was then destitute of
materials and workmen, and it was proposed to send them from
Philadelphia at a great expense, I thought it would have been better
to have built the house at Philadelphia, and brought the children to
it. This I advised; but he was resolute in his first project, rejected
my counsel, and I therefore refused to contribute. I happened, soon
after, to attend one of his sermons, in the course of which I
perceived he intended to finish with a collection, and I silently
resolved he should get nothing from me. I had in my pocket a handful
of copper money, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in
gold. As he proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the
copper; another stroke of his oratory made me ashamed of that, and
determined me to give the silver; and he finished so admirably, that
I emptied my pocket wholly into the collector's dish, gold and all.

"At this sermon," continues Franklin, "there was also one of our club,
who, being of my sentiments respecting the building in Georgia, and
suspect