Yet he did not spare rich nor poor: he preached at the squire, and that great fat farmer, Mr.Bullock, the churchwarden, as boldly as at Hodge the ploughman and Scrub the hedger.

As for Mr.Stirn, he had preached at him more often than at any one in the parish; but Stirn, though he had the sense to know it, never had the grace to reform.

There was, too, in Parson Dale's sermons something of that boldness of illustration which would have been scholarly if he had not made it familiar, and which is found in the discourses of our elder divines.

Like them, he did not scruple now and then to introduce an anecdote from history, or borrow an allusion from some non-scriptural author, in order to enliven the attention of his audience, or render an argument more plain.

And the good man had an object in this, a little distinct from, though wholly subordinate to, the main purpose of his discourse.