the hymn . This , at least , is a portion of the service which I can enjoy better than if I sat within the walls , where the full choir and the massive melody of the organ , would fall with a weight upon me . At this distance , it thrills through my frame , and plays upon my heartstrings , with a pleasure both of the sense and spirit . Heaven be praised , I know nothing of music , as a science ; and the most elaborate harmonies , if they please me , please as simply as a nurse 's lullaby . The strain has ceased , but prolongs itself in my mind , with fanciful echoes , till I start from my revery , and find that the sermon has commenced . It is my misfortune seldom to fructify , in a regular way , by any but printed sermons . The first strong idea , which the preacher utters , gives birth to a train of thought , and leads me onward , step by step , quite out of hearing of the good man 's voice , unless he be indeed a son of thunder . At my open window , catching now and then a sentence of the `` parson 's saw , '' I am as well situated as at the foot of the pulpit stairs . The broken and scattered fragments of this one discourse will be the texts of many sermons , preached by those colleague pastors , -- colleagues , but often disputants , -- my Mind and Heart . The former pretends to be a scholar , and perplexes me with doctrinal points ; the latter takes me on the score of feeling ; and both , like several other preachers , spend their strength to very little purpose . I , their sole auditor , can not always understand them . Suppose that a few hours have passed , and behold me still behind my curtain , just before the close of the afternoon service . The hour-hand on the dial has passed beyond four o'clock . The declining sun is hidden behind the steeple , and throws its shadow straight across the street , so that my chamber is darkened , as with a cloud . Around the church-door all is solitude , and an impenetrable obscurity beyond the threshold . A commotion is heard . The seats are slammed down , and the pew-doors thrown back , -- a multitude of feet are trampling along the unseen aisles , -- and the congregation bursts suddenly through the portal . Foremost , scampers a rabble of boys , behind whom moves a dense and dark phalanx of grown men , and lastly , a crowd of females , with young children , and a few scattered husbands . This instantaneous outbreak of life into loneliness is one of the pleasantest scenes of the day . Some of the good people are rubbing their eyes , thereby intimating that they have been wrapped , as it were , in a sort of holy trance , by the fervor of their devotion .
There is a young man , a third-rate coxcomb , whose first care is always to flourish a white handkerchief , and brush the seat XXXXX a tight pair of black silk pantaloons , which shine as if varnished .
across along before if in of through till to upon