THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PHRENOLOGIST.

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the chapel was always respectably filled, and sometimes, especially in the evening, crowded, in Lisle Street Chapel, which was not more than two-thirds the size of that in York Street, there was a sad display of empty pews.

I now regularly attended chapel, and my voice, which was still equal to a woman's, brought me into notice, and I sat (as a boy) with the ladies in their pew. Here I became acquainted with a Mrs. Peacock, and her family, and for musical ability a delightful family they were. Mrs. P., in particular, was, although an elderly woman, a most charming singer. And the choir in Lisle Street was equally efficient with that of York Street. There was also a Mr. J— (now living in Birmingham, and I have recently learned, blind), who had a very beautiful voice, and was a universal favorite in the choir.

I have heard nearly all the preachers in the Swedenborgian Connexion, and to my view, not one of them ever equalled (as an orator) Mr. Proud. His temperament had a nervous predominance, but there was enough of the bilious to render his activity enduring. In person he was of the middle height. He had a large and brilliant eye. His head was very finely formed; his forehead was broad and moderately deep; he had a beautifully arched eyebrow, and in the course of the temporal ridge of the frontal bone the brain projected to a considerable extent, giving great breadth above the temples; that portion of the brain assigned by Phrenologists to Ideality was essentially large. His head was very finely rounded at the vertex, rendering Firmness, Conscientiousness, and Cautiousness in equally fair proportion, and rather large. The posterior part of the vertex was somewhat elevated, giving prominence to both Self-esteem and Love of Approbation. The coronal surface of the brain, both before and behind the anterior fontanel, was well rounded. He was at the time I first saw him somewhat stately, it is true, and with much of the natural language of selfesteem in his manner, but this I have since thought added to the dignity of his appearance,

His portrait, which was taken in the 72nd year of his age, was published in 1818, at which time, however, the brain seemed to me to have receded, and the tables of the skull had followed it, so that it had much less fulness than when I first saw him in 1810.

He was then (1810) engaged in the delivery of 'Six Lectures to Young Men and Women on the most Important and Interesting Subjects of Life and Practice.' The chapel was crowded each evening, and the Discourses were afterwards published.

He was fond of amplification, and used frequently the rhetorical figure called climax, making his sentences to go on increasingly in their importance one above another. His action was graceful, and his head, during the delivery of his sermons, was raised obliquely upwards, as though holding intercourse, through the medium of his expressive eye, with heaven and its troops of angels. His discourses were intelligent, feelingly delivered, and of moderate length. He carried his congregation with him to the end-they never wearied.

Mr. Proud was the compiler and part author of a Hymn Book, which for a time was used nearly by the whole body of the Swedenborgians. Many of the hymns of his own composition possessed great poetic beauty. His prose works were numerous, and were freely circulated among the Swedenborgians, but as literary compositions they were not much admired. His forte lay in preaching; and as a pulpit orator, it is my opinion he has never been equalled in the New Church.*

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We sometimes hear a sermon that fills our thoughts as we listen, and yet we forget it all as we turn away from the church door, for it went no deeper than our thoughts. another time what we hear goes with us to our homes, haunts us through the week, and perhaps is made a standard whereby to measure the virtues or the vices of

* A Memoir of Mr. Proud, prefixed to his last work, the 'Aged Minister's Last Legacy,' has recently been written by Mr. Madeley of Birmingham.-Hodson, Portugal Street, London.

our neighbors; possibly even we try ourselves by its rule, and our consciences are roused to pierce us with the sharp pangs of remorse. All this, however, brings no change over our lives. Here thought has passed into imagination, has become a reality to the mind; but as yet the affections do not warm towards it, and so it dies in the second stage of existence. Yet again we listen to the voice of the preacher, and his words abide in the soul, until they quicken our affections, and as we muse, the fire burns. Then are our eyes lightened to perceive how all that we have heard may become realised in life; and warmed by the heavenly flame that has descended upon our altar, our souls kindle with charity, and we go forth to realise the hope that is within us in works of angelic use.'

Mr. Proud's preaching realised the above description. He united intellect, affection, and earnestness. At one period of his discourse he appealed to the reflecting faculties. He constituted his hearers into judges. He himself acted the part of counsel, pleading a cause earnestly before those whom he exhorted to judge righteously. He then excited the affections. He dwelt upon the love of the Lord; upon the manner in which his love was exercised; and threw the whole power of his eloquence with intense earnestness into the application. He made his hearers feel every word he uttered, for they saw that he himself felt. He was no dry, formal, intellectual preacher, but, as already stated, affection and use were the staples of his sermons. An amiable writer* once observed: 'Some preachers lighten, but do not thunder; others thunder, but do not lighten the true preacher does both; the pretended, neither.' Mr. Proud was a true preacher, He never failed in his applications to insist upon the utility of trials for the regeneration of man. showed the love of God in all his providential visitations; and then he made even the valley of Achor into a door of hope' for the sufferers, and drew them affectionately to his own warm heart, and 'spake comfortably unto them.'

and did both.

*Rev. J. Clowes.

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