Alexander--Since I had the pleasure of your most
agreeable visit, and its accompanying conversation, I have
been very unwell and hardly left the house. You mentioned the
reference made by Dean Stanley (?) to the story of the
semi-idiot boy and his receiving the communion with such
heart-felt reality. I forgot to mention that, summer before
last, two American gentlemen were announced, who talked very
pleasantly before I found who they were--one a Baptist
minister at Boston, and the other a professor in a college. I
did not know why they had called at all until the minister
_let on_ that he did not like to be in Edinburgh without
waiting upon the author of _Reminiscences_, as the book had
much interested him in Scottish life, language and character,
before he had been a visitor on the Scottish shores. "But
chiefly," he added, "I wished to tell you that the day before
I sailed I preached in a large store to above two thousand
people; that from your book I had to them brought forward the
anecdote of the simpleton lad's deep feeling in seeing the
'_pretty man_' in the communion, and of his being found dead
next morning." To which he added, in strong American tones,
"I pledge _myself_ to you, sir, there was not a dry eye in
the whole assembly."
It is a feature of modern times how anecdotes, sayings,
expressions, etc.
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