The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-07-30
Habits OF Distinguished Men.

The habits of distinguished men in |
composing and speaking, or in thought |
and the public utterance of their thoughts,
are instructive, as well as eccentric aud |
amusing. They show both the weak and |
the strong side of our human nature.
They show the power of habit in the |
strongest, no less than the weakest of the
race, and the dominion it has over mind |
aud body both. Habits also exhibit the
superiority of mind over matter and how
the human and personal will, consciously
or unconsciously, controls and directs and
uses all things to realize proposed end.
Illustrative of some of these things is the
following, relating to the Rev. John
Pitcairn, formerly of I" The Synod of Re-
lief" branch of the Presbyterian Church
in Scotland. The peculiar habit of Mr..
Pitcairn is given by venerable father, a
man of no limited acquaintance with the
ministry at home or abroad. OF MIR.
Pitcairn he says: /" He was, as | have
thought, the most finished pulpit orator
to whom it was ever my privilege to
listen" His " little peculiarities or habits
he gives as follows: " He always held a
white pocket.handkerchef in his hand
during the Sunday service of his church.
OF this habit all his hearers were aware,
but they had been so accustomed to it
that they scarcely noticed it, and very
seldom, if ever, spoke of it. can fancy
now that see him on Sunday morning
with great dignity ascend the stairs into his
pulpit and take his seat in it. Having
calmly looked around on the assembly
before him, he would take from his pocket
a white handkerchief, neatly folded up,
| Al. -. L.olI of ~<~f, k,
he proceeded, by means of a smart jerk,
to shake it loose; and this handkerchief
he held fast through the whole of the
services. In all the movements of his
right hand-and they were of ten quite
numerous-during the time of worship
the white handkerchief played its part.
A gentleman who was a great admirer of
Mr.. Pitcairn, and who seems to have
been frequent nearer of his, made the
remark that the white handkerchief was,
in fact, a part of Pitcairn himself when
in the pulpit" The same father gives
the habit of the celebrated Baptist minis
ter, Andrew Fuller I" 1t was not unusual
for Fuller when preaching to take hold of
button of his coat and to twist it round
until he had twisted it off, so that on
Mondays 1t was not unusual for Mrs.
Fuller to be engaged in sewing fresh
buttons on her husbands Sunday coat u
He further says of Robert Hall, whom
the Encyclopedia Britannica calls "one
of the greatest of English pulpit orators"
and whose self.control was so great that
he was able to compose some of the most
eloquent passages of his discourses with
ing in agony on the floor "When this
J man of great eloquence and power was
preaching, especially if rather embar-
raised, which was apt to be the case al
: the beginning of discourse, the fingers
of his left hand were busily engaged in
fumbling with the leaves of the Bible be-
fore him; but as soon as he became
warmed with his subject his fingers were
set at liberty, having no longer to do with
the leaves of the sacred volume" OF +
!, ID. Maurice, who "was before all thing:
, a preacher" though writer of the Theo
logical Essays and the reputed author o.
the Broad Church movement, his memoir
details even more remarkable eccentrici
! ties: " 1t was very great relief to hin
to compose his books by dictation and to
avoid the labor of mechanical writing
, His usual manner of dictation was to sii
, with pillow on his knees, Rugged tightly
: in his arms, or to walk up and down thu
, room, still clutching the pillow, or sud
, denly sitting down or standing before th'
fire, with the pillow still on his knees o.
, under his left arm, to seize poker ant
: violently attack the fire, then to walh
1 away from it to the furthest end of tn
/. room, return and poke violently at tn
r fire, not unfrequently in complete uncon
n seriousness of what he was doing, pokinl
q the whole contents of the fire place through
r the bars into the fender. The habit o
a holding the p illow whenever he WAS en-
!. gagged in excited talk dates from sucl
4 early days that one of his undergraduate
= Cambridge friends used to say that {
a black horse-hair pillow, which he thei
' had, always followed him about of itself
!. My mother, in his Guys days, used t.
! call such an one his BLACK wife, Al
h the while he poured forth continue
|, stream of words. "-New York Observer