 should it surprise you? You must suppose me designed for some
profession, and might perceive that I am neither a lawyer, nor a soldier, nor a
sailor.«
    »Very true; but, in short, it had not occurred to me. And you know there is
generally an uncle or a grandfather to leave a fortune to the second son.«
    »A very praiseworthy practice,« said Edmund, »but not quite universal. I am
one of the exceptions, and being one, must do something for myself.«
    »But why are you to be a clergyman? I thought that was always the lot of the
youngest, where there were many to choose before him.«
    »Do you think the church itself never chosen then?«
    »Never is a black word. But yes, in the never of conversation which means
not very often, I do think it. For what is to be done in the church? Men love to
distinguish themselves, and in either of the other lines, distinction may be
gained, but not in the church. A clergyman is nothing.«
    »The nothing of conversation has its gradations, I hope, as well as the
never. A clergyman cannot be high in state or fashion. He must not head mobs, or
set the ton in dress. But I cannot call that situation nothing, which has the
charge of all that is of the first importance to mankind, individually or
collectively considered, temporally and eternally - which has the guardianship
of religion and morals, and consequently of the manners which result from their
influence. No one here can call the office nothing. If the man who holds it is
so, it is by the neglect of his duty, by foregoing its just importance, and
stepping out of his place to appear what he ought not to appear.«
    »You assign greater consequence to the clergyman than one has been used to
hear given, or than I can quite comprehend. One does not see much of this
influence and importance in society, and how can it be acquired where they are
so seldom seen themselves? How can two sermons a week, even supposing them worth
hearing, supposing the preacher to have the sense to prefer Blair's to his own,
do all that you speak of? govern the conduct and fashion the manners of a large
congregation for the rest of the week? One scarcely sees a clergyman out of his
pulpit.«
    »You are speaking of London, I am speaking of the nation at large.«
    »The metropolis, I imagine, is a pretty fair
