an a hurdle;
but he must be idle, soft, and effeminate! May he not desire wholesome
food and fresh drink; unless he be a cheat, a hypocrite, and an impostor!
And must he needs be void of all grace, though he has a shilling in his
purse, after the rates be crossed [off]! and full of pride and vanity
though his house stands not upon crutches; and though his chimney is to
be seen a foot above the thatch!

O, how prettily and temperately may half a score of children be
maintained with _almost_ L20 [= L60 _now_] _per annum_! What a handsome
shift, a poor ingenious and frugal Divine will make, to take it by turns,
and wear a cassock [_a long cloak_] one year, and a pair of breeches
another! What a becoming thing is it for him that serves at the Altar, to
fill the dung cart in dry weather, and to heat the oven and pull [_strip_]
hemp in wet! And what a pleasant thing is it, to see the Man of GOD
fetching up his single melancholy cow from a small rib [_strip_] of land
that is scarcely to be found without a guide! or to be seated upon a soft
and well grinded pouch [_bag_] of meal! or to be planted upon a pannier,
with a pair of geese or turkeys bobbing out their heads from under his
canonical coat! as you cannot but remember the man, Sir, that was thus
accomplished. Or to find him raving about the yards or keeping his
chamber close, because the duck lately miscarried of an egg, or that the
never-failing hen has unhappily forsaken her wonted nest!

And now, shall we think that such employments as these, can, any way,
consist with due reverence, or tolerable respect from a parish?

And he speaks altogether at a venture that says that "this is false, or,
at least it need not be so; notwithstanding the mean condition of some of
the Clergy." For let any one make it out to me, which way is it possible
that a man shall be able to maintain perhaps eight or ten in his family,
with L20 or L30 _per annum_, without a intolerable dependence upon his
parish; and without committing himself to such vileness as will, in all
likelihood, render him contemptible to his people.

Now where the income is so pitifully small (which, I will assure you, is
the portion of hundreds of the Clergy of this nation), which way shall he
manage it for the subsistence of himself and his family?

If he keeps the glebe in his own hand (which he may easily do, almost in
the hollow of it!) what increase can he expect from a couple of apple
trees, a brood of ducklin