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Essay: perhaps indeed it sounds best so, unless in some extreme case of a man of some splendid rhetorical powers, a natural orator. But a sermon ought not, to take effort, to be read. Whatsoever others may do, New Englanders will not now as their fathers did, or as perhaps Scotchmen will now, sit an hour or two hours to hear a man read an dry (musty I almost said), theological argument. They may sit the Modern half hour; even for that short time, really hear! not one in ten, as far as any observation or experience goes. To interest people, to make them hear you, you must talk to them, reason with them, speak to them, not read at them, or as many do merely read in the house where they sit. It was my utter, absolute incapability of doing this, of talking, speaking to people that convinced me that I ought not, could not, be a Minister. Even if my heart & my head were full- my tongue would be lacking. I should have nothing to say, that is, no words to say it in. I feel this to be my exceeding great infirmity, and I believe it grows upon me. Perhaps my circumstances are not very favorable to the cultivation of whatever slight faculty of speech I may possibly possess. At College, among so many having the same thoughts & feelings, bound & affected by the same circumstances and influences, within & without, I could of course contrive to express the common stock of ideas, or let others express them for me, so as to get along after some decent fashion. In the circles of domestic life, among old tried intimate, perfectly acquainted friends, I think likely it might be the same. but among strangers, or more casual acquaintances, all whose thought, feelings, sentiments, ideas & sensations even, are different from my own, I find it almost impossible to speak even as much as the forms of society require, even to answer civil questions decently. I declare what an essay I have been writing here. Lets see, what was I writing about? O Thanksgiving! I would have procured a team & gone over to Royalston that day, if I could have managed to procure an invitation.