Many a
blow which would have cleft the helmet, turned off without harm from the
mitre; and the crozier kept many an enemy at bay, who would have rushed
without apprehension upon the spear.
To the successors of the Anglo-Saxon prelates, we mainly owe the
preservation of the forms and spirit of a free government, defended, not
by force, but by law; and the altar may be considered as the corner-stone
of the ancient constitution of the realm.
* * * * *
THE GATHERER.
A snapper up of unconsidered trifles.
SHAKSPEARE.
* * * * *
SERMONS.
Mr. Northcote tells us, that a clergyman, a friend of Mr. Opie's declared
to him, that he once delivered one of Sir J. Reynolds's discourses to the
Royal Academy, from the pulpit, as a sermon, with no other alteration but
in such words as made it applicable to morals instead of the fine arts.
* * * * *
SANCTUARY.
What an eccentricity of wickedness was it to appoint any place where a
murderer should get shelter--a church too! but such were, and are (abroad)
called sanctuaries. Lancaster Church was reserved by Henry VIII. as a
sanctuary, after the abolition of that dangerous privilege in the rest of
England.
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