With Dr. Chalmers we passed a couple of hours. He is old now, but
still full of vigor and fire. We had an opportunity of hearing a
fine burst of indignant eloquence from him. "I shall blush to my very
bones," said he, "if the _Chaarrch_" (sound these two _rrs_ with
as much burr as possible, and you will get an idea of his mode of
pronouncing that unweariable word,) "if the Chaarrch yield to the
storm." He alluded to the outcry now raised by the Abolitionists
against the Free Church, whose motto is, "Send back the money;" i.e.,
the money taken from the American slaveholders. Dr. C. felt, that
if they did not yield from conviction, they must not to assault.
His manner in speaking of this gave me a hint of the nature of his
eloquence. He seldom preaches now.
* * * * *
A Scottish gentleman told me the following story:--Burns, still only
in the dawn of his celebrity, was invited to dine with one of the
neighboring so-called gentry, unhappily quite void of true gentle
blood. On arriving, he found his plate set in the servants' room.
After dinner, he was invited into a room where guests were assembled,
and, a chair being placed for him at the lower end of the board, a
glass of wine was offered, and he was requested to sing one of his
songs for the entertainment, of the company. He drank off the wine,
and thundered forth in reply his grand song "For a' that and a' that,"
and having finished his prophecy and prayer, nature's nobleman left
his churlish entertainers to hide their heads in the home they had
disgraced.