SKETCH,

&c. &c.

TO many readers of these volumes, the following sketch of the author's character will probably appear very imperfect. Yet to those most intimately acquainted with him, it may not be without something of that interest with which the rudest outline of a beloved countenance is contemplated. It may furnish hints for their own recollections, and from these may acquire a value to which in itself it cannot pretend.

They to whom the author is now for the first time introduced, will, it is feared, find it difficult to form, from what will

b

here be said of him, ideas of his character at all approaching in distinctness to those which live in the remembrance of his friends. The impression made by the manners and conversation is of too subtle a nature to be exactly transferred from one mind to another. Like the sound of the voice, it is very easy to be recollected, but impossible to be perfectly described.

The difficulty is peculiarly great in the instance of a character so deeply stamped with originality as that of Mr. Houghton. He was not one who can be described by comparison with others. He was eminently a man who, to be remembered, required only to be seen; who to be remembered with admiration and affection, required only to be known: but whose idea, in those who best remember him, is bound up with ideas of a look, a tone, a manner, a temper, a genius so peculiarly his own, that they find themselves almost without words, when they wish to make

those, even but in a small degree, acquainted with him now, who knew him not when living.

But though it is impossible to give the reader of these volumes a perfect idea of their author, one characteristic of his mind can hardly fail to be traced in their contents. His sermons bear ample testimony to the practical, rather than controversial, turn of his meditations. He much more seldom appears as the critic or theologian, than as the admiring and fervent worshipper of the Divine goodness and wisdom-the benevolent investigator of the kind and amiable and noble feelings which have their exercise in the home and heart of man-the rejoicing believer in the happiness individual and social, in the dignity intellectual and moral, in the endlessly progressive improvement and enjoyment, of which God has made His rational creatures capable,

and for which it is His purpose by various discipline to train them. There seemed, indeed, in the author, but little disposition to dwell on the perplexities and subtleties either of metaphysical or of theological discussion. His mind appeared chiefly alive to every thing great and beautiful, inviting and consoling, purifying and exalting, gladdening to the belief and beneficially influential on the practice, whether in the teachings of the Creator's works, in the conclusions from human experience, or in the pages of revelation. The universe was to him a study for quiet and admiring contemplation-for catching and tracing out every ray of holy and glorious light-for watching how every beam of goodness proceeds from one centre, and every voice of happiness speaks. of one mighty and pervading presence. Christianity was to him the true science of human virtue, interest and enjoyment. It was a system of principles all directly entering into the formation of valuable

character and amiable temper. He looked in it for those representations of the Divine nature, which might most persuasively and beneficially attract the attention and veneration of men-which might make piety a softening and humanizing, as well as a purifying affection, an ornament as well as a guard to virtue, a silken thread in the bond of human intercourse. He beheld in religion-a herald of peace, a messenger of mercy, a prompter of benevolence and compassion. He beheld in God-the perfection of excellence, all truth, all purity, all goodness; and in the worship of Him, a means of elevating and warming the mind to the contemplation and love of every thing just, venerable, pure and lovely. In his view, to be religious was to be full of the best thoughts and feelings, "full of mercy and good fruits," temperate, patient, cheerful, candid, liberal and charitable, abounding in confidence toward God, and in brotherly hope for men the children of