and exhilarated, but never scorched. Hence few men possessed more friends, or fewer enemies it may be doubted whether among the numerous list of the former, he lost the esteem of one. The friends of his youth who did not descend into the grave before him, were the delight and solace of his age, and in proportion as their ranks were thinned, he wisely consulted his happiness by cultivating the affection of a succeeding generation, by which he escaped that solitude and desertion which is the lot of those who shut their hearts against new attachments, neglect the good within their reach in a hopeless attempt to grasp a phantom, and perversely refuse to attach a value to any other pleasures but those which have withered under the blast of death.

It was not his practice to devote much of his time to ministerial visits. In justification of this part of his conduct he was accustomed to quote the apostolic injunction: "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church," &c. He possessed, or fancied he

possessed, little talent for the ordinary topics of religious conversation; and his extreme aversion to the ostentation of spirituality, rendered him somewhat reluctant to engage in those recitals of Christian experience in which many professors so much delight. There adhered to his natural disposition a delicacy and reserve, which rendered it impossible for him to disclose, except in the most confidential intercourse, the secret movements and aspirations of his heart towards the best of Beings.

He possessed, notwithstanding this, a high relish for the pleasures of society. An inexhaustible fund of anecdote which he was wont to relate with a dry and comic humour, rendered him, in his livelier moments, a most fascinating companion. A great versatility of features, combined with much power of imitation to give a peculiar poignance to the different incidents of his story. His imitations however were specific, not individual, seldom if ever descending to personal mimickry, an illiberal art, more befitting the buffoon than the Christian

or the gentleman.

Mr. Toller's indulgence of these sallies was occasional, not habitual; they formed at times the seasoning of his conversation, not the staple commodity; and never were they carried so far as to impair the dignity of his character, or the reverence inspired by his virtues. They were invariably such as a virgin might listen to without a blush, and a saint without a sigh.

Mr. Toller was much of a practical philosopher. Deeply convinced of the vanity and imperfection of the present state, which he considered less as a scene of enjoyment than as a perpetual conflict with unavoidable evils, he was always disposed to make the best of passing events, to yield where resistance was unavailing, to beguile the sorrows which he could not remove, and by, setting the good against the evil, to blunt the arrows of adversity and disarm disappointment of its sting. Possessing a genuine, but not a sickly sensibility, he placed his, however, in enduring the vicissitudes of life with equanimity, rather than

in any excessive delicacy or refinement of feeling.

"Speak evil of no man," is an injunction of which he never lost sight; and without assuming the severity of reproof, he well knew how by an expressive silence to mark his aversion to scandal. He showed a constant solicitude to give no offence to jew or gentile, or the household of God. Hence the efficacy of his ministry was never obstructed or impaired by the personal prejudice of his hearers, who regarded him not only with the deference due to a zealous and enlightened teacher, but with the affection of a friend. He was an ardent lover of peace. On no occasion did he offend by haughtiness, negligence, the indulgence of a capricious humour, or the sallies of intemperate anger. It has been asserted by some that knew him early in life, that his original disposition was hasty and irritable. If this was the case, he affords a striking example of the conquest of religion and philosophy over the early tendencies of nature, since few men were equally

distinguished by an unaffected sweetness and serenity of temper.

During every period of my acquaintance with him, he exhibited the most decided indications of piety; but in the latter stages of his life this part of his character shone with distinguished lustre; devotion appeared to be his habitual element. Seldom has religion presented more of the lovely and attractive than in the character of Mr. Toller; if it did not inflame him with the zeal which distinguished more active and enterprising spirits, it melted him into love, clothed him with humility, and decked him, in an eminent degree, with the "ornaments of a meek and quiet spirit."

It has rarely been the privilege of one town, and that not of considerable extent, to possess at the same time and for so long a period, two such eminent men as Mr. Toller and Mr. Fuller. Their merits as Christian ministers were so equal, and yet so different, that the exercise of their religious functions in the same place,