"JosephAddison&RichardSteele-DaysWithSirRogerDeCoverley" - читать интересную книгу автора (Addison Joseph)

was afraid of being insulted with Latin and Greek at his own
table; for which reason he desired a particular friend of his at
the University to find him out a clergyman rather of plain sense
than much learning, of a good aspect, a clear voice, a sociable
temper, and, if possible, a man that understood a little of
backgammon. My friend, says Sir Roger, found me out this
gentleman, who, besides the endowments required of him, is, they
tell me, a good scholar, tho' he does not shew it. I have given
him the parsonage of the parish; and because I know his value,
have settled upon him a good annuity for life. If he outlives
me, he shall find that he was higher in my esteem than perhaps he
thinks he is. He has now been with me thirty years; and tho' he
does not know I have taken notice of it, has never in all that
time asked anything of me for himself, tho' he is every day
soliciting me for some thing in behalf of one or other of my
tenants his parishioners. There has not been a law-suit in the
parish since he has liv'd among them. If any dispute arises they
apply themselves to him for the decision; if they do not
acquiesce in his judgment, which I think never happened above
once or twice at most, they appeal to me. At his first settling
with me, I made him a present of all the good sermons which have
been printed in English, and only begg'd of him that every Sunday
he would pronounce one of them in the pulpit. Accordingly, he
has digested them into such a series, that they follow one
another naturally, and make a continued system of practical
divinity.

As Sir Roger was going on in his story, the gentleman we were
talking of came up to us; and upon the Knight's asking him who
preached to tomorrow (for it was Saturday night) told us, the
Bishop of St. Asaph in the morning, and Dr. South in the
afternoon. He then shewed us his list of preachers for the whole
year, where I saw with a great deal of pleasure Archbishop
Tillotson, Bishop Saunderson, Dr. Barrow, Dr. Calamy, with
several living authors who have published discourses of practical
divinity. I no sooner saw this venerable man in the pulpit, but
I very much approved of my friend's insisting upon the
qualifications of a good aspect and a clear voice; for I was so
charmed with the gracefulness of his figure and delivery, as well
as with the discourses he pronounced, that I think I never passed
any time more to my satisfaction. A sermon repeated after this
manner, is like the composition of a poet in the mouth of a
graceful actor.

I could heartily wish that more of our country-clergy would
follow this example; and instead of wasting their spirits in
laborious compositions of their own, would endeavour after a
handsome elocution, and all those other talents that are proper
to enforce what has been penned by greater masters. This would
not only be more easy to themselves, but more edifying to the