be given to the sermons of the Rev. Huntington Porter, from Rye, close upon the sea. There was an aridity in the sermons and in the aspect of the preacher, that bore as strong a resemblance to the sand upon the sea-shore as the Rev. Mr. Litchfield's did to the calling of his flock. They were both like those wholesome fruits, whose mellow and sweet qualities are covered with a rough and husky rind. Mr. Litchfield's prayers, made up of quotations of the highly figurative language of Scripture, never varied; if he had been cut short in any part of them, the youngest of his hearers could have taken up the strain and gone on to the end.

Those ministers who were settled in the parishes upon the borders of the sea, whose hearers were part fishermen, part agriculturists, were eminently practical men; they were teachers and pioneers for both worlds, and they seemed to enjoy 'the blessings of heaven above, and the blessing of the deep that lieth under; the dew of the mountains, and the riches of the deep that coucheth beneath'; for many of them died comparatively rich, even in the goods of this world.

There is an anecdote told of one of the Piscataqua Association, who, addressing a society of fishermen, wished to adapt his discourse to the understanding of his hearers. He inquired, 'Supposing, in a northeast storm, you should be taken short in the bay, your hearts trembling with fear, and nothing but death before you, whither would your thoughts turn? to whom would you fly?' One of the hearers, arrested by the description, cried out, 'Why, in that case, I should hoist the foresail and scud away for Squam.'

The Rev. Mr. Chandler, of Eliot, taught his parish how to turn the waste places, literally, into a garden, and to make the desert blossom as the rose. He was the first who supplied the Portsmouth market with vegetables. He taught the women to be the best of husbandmen, to work double tides, with the hoe and the oar; and withal, he contrived to bring an unusual degree of refinement for the time and place into his parish, and to cultivate the best affections of his people. The moral soil kept pace with the natural, and while this portion of the shores of the Piscataqua was distinguished for its deeper verdure, its richer foliage, the people were remarkable for the courtesy of their manners and the honesty of their dealings. The wives of the fishermen were the market-women of Portsmouth., There was a small market-house where they assembled, after having made fast the boats which they rowed with their own hands, and then dispersed themselves, with their wares, through the town.

There were families that had been furnished by the selfsame women long years, from blooming youth to wrinkled age, with eggs, berries, chickens, spun yarn, knitted stockings, &c., coming as regularly as the Saturday came, till a bond of mutual dependence was formed; and the familiar face that had been comely in youth continued to them the same, although to strangers it assumed the witch-like appearance of Meg Merrilies.

One more of the Association, so familiar and honored in the youth of the writer, shall be mentioned. The Rev. Jacob Abbot, of Hampton Falls, was a man of extreme sensibility, and of an inequality of tem

perament which subjected him to alternate seasons of dejection and exhilaration. His countenance immediately betrayed which state of feeling predominated, and all his services, even in the pulpit, partook of the variableness of his temperament. He was dear to children and young people, from the tender and familiar interest he felt in their improvement. He was always a welcome guest, from his delicate fear of giving trouble; and as he continued a more intimate intercourse with Massachusetts, and the literary and polite world there, than some others of the Association, his conversation was more rich and varied, and more entertaining to the young.

As has been said above, these ministers differed widely in their religious views; between the two extremes of the strict Calvinist and the believer in universal salvation was included among them every shade of Protestant faith. Although their opinions. were freely discussed in these meetings, they do not appear in any offensive prominence in the two publications they put forth, the Missionary Magazine and the Piscataqua Prayer-Book, but were merged in the great object of their writing and their preaching, to turn sinners to God by faith in Jesus Christ, and to produce virtuous and holy lives.

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The Piscataqua Missionary Magazine was a boon in their families. Like the new year's almanac, it was read from the first page to the last, most gratefully, if it contained an 'entertaining anecdote'; and news of even missionary proceedings was read with avidity, at a time when there was no yellow, nor blue, nor brown-covered literature to fill up the Sunday hours that were not spent in the sanctuary.

The other publication was 'A Prayer-Book for the Use of Families,' in which the address to heads of families was written by Dr. Buckminster.

There is in this such a remarkable absence of sectarianism, and such a unity of spirit, that all the prayers seem to have proceeded from one mind and one heart, together with a simplicity of faith and expression that could be understood by a child.

The remarks that have been made touching the unanimity of feeling in the Piscataqua Association must be understood to refer to the close of the last century, before the critical study of the Scriptures had introduced diversity of opinion upon the subject of the Trinity.

CHAPTER IV.

PORTSMOUTH. PECULIARITY IN ITS EARLY SETTLEMENT AND IN ITS SOCIETY. ITS WEALTH. PERSONAL RECOL

LECTIONS. MRS. TAPPAN, DR. BUCKMINSTER'S SISTER.

PORTSMOUTH from its foundation presented a state of society unlike that of any other place in New England. It was not settled from motives of religion, but for purposes of trade. Possessing one of the most beautiful localities, of intermingled land and water, its advantages of harbor and fishing-ground presented an alluring prospect to persons wishing to gain fortunes and to enjoy life. A well-authenticated anecdote shows that the inhabitants themselves would not hypocritically appropriate to themselves the praise of being a religious society. A reverend divine, preaching to them against the depravity of the times, said, 'You have forsaken the pious habits of your forefathers, who left the ease and comfort they possessed in their native land, and came to this howling wilderness, to enjoy the exercise of their religion and a pure worship.' One of the congregation rose and said, 'Sir, you entirely mistake the matter: our ancestors did not come here on account of their religion, but to fish and trade.'

The settlement, the government, and the prevailing tone of society were different from most of the New England towns. There was no Puritanism in the