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362 however, in accordance with the increase of general prosperity, circumstances changed, and the conception of general official possibilities was widely indulged, and the number of candidates was multiplied.

The town of Hopkinton was passed into the second stage of local political life and ambition, when a person of official aspirations began to prospect in anticipation of the desired prize. The amount of recognition and influence requisite to secure the object of ambition accumulated slowly. However, deserving patience has its frequent reward, and the aspirant for political honors at last found himself a hopeful candidate. However, time had advanced upon him till his personal vital career was past its meridian; he was verging towards the season of life when many individuals step into the back-ground of public notice.

Town-meeting day arrived, and the great company of voters gathered at the polls to fulfil the rights of American citizens. The extensive excitement and impetuosity too frequently incidental upon public elections, was abundantly illustrated. The party entering upon the life of full-fledged official candidacy was of dignified mien and counsel, and righteously deplored the too prevailing rudeness of the crowd at town-meeting. On this particular occasion, seeing a brusk voter elbowing his way impetuously towards the polls, he accosted the hasty individual, saying, in an admonitory tone of voice:

"Don't hurry so. There is plenty of time. What is your haste?"

"I want," said the impetuous individual, "to get to the polls to vote for you. I have been waiting a long time for a chance to vote for you, and if I don't get a chance to cast a ballot for you pretty soon, you will be too old to hold any office."

We presume the enquirer saw the peril of the situation and admitted the pleaded cause of increased motivity.

Among all the forms of human utterance that excite our risibles, there are none more forcible than those that are the manifest offspring of a predisposition to absurd verbal blundering. The aspect of this class of lapsus linguæ is often eminently laughable. We admire a keen stroke of wit for its sublety. We smile at a dash of lively humor, for it lifts us out of the slough of abstract and oppressive seriousness, and sheds a cheering light upon our otherwise too prosy pathway. The sudden ingression of a bold ludicrosity upon our ordinary mental rectitude upsets the very foundations of our gravity, and the unrestrained torrent of emotive drollery sweeps us away. There is no such thing as anticipating, perfectly, when a demonstration of our incidental liability to any ludicrous contretemps may not occur; and, when surprised, we are always, in some sense at least, ungovernable.

No one occupies a more critical social position than a new minister. Being not only the observed of all observers, and the special object of every conversational reflection, there is an illusive glare attendant upon his moral position that strains and inflames the eyes of the collective laity and often makes them see with distorted vision. Even in the absence of any unjust intent, the mystified vision of the observer will often incite attitudes and observations closely bordering upon the realm of undeserved severity. In such a situation and case, the gospel of a good word, even from a weaker representative of faith, affords a cheer that goes to the root of inner consciousness.

Many years ago a certain church and society in this town was favored with a new clergyman. Like all persons similarly situated, he was subjected to the ordeal of socially inductive criticism. Not long after his advent in the locality, certain of the sisters of his congregation were gathered at a quilting. Diligently plying their needles around the borders of the prospective bed-spread, their reflections and conversation naturally turned towards the new minister. It is needless