never knew him to give a word otherwise than "according to Walker," so
long as Walker was the standard with him,--or never but once, when he
said cli-mac'ter-ic, instead of cli-mac-ter'ic; and when I remonstrated
with him, he lugged out Webster, whom he adhered to forever after. So
exceedingly fastidious and sensitive was he, about the time he left
Baltimore for Cambridge, that in his desire to give the pure sound of
_e_, as in _met_, instead of the sound of _u_, which is so common as to
be almost universal where _e_ is followed by _r_ and another consonant,
so that _person_ is pronounced _purson_, he gave a sound which most
people misunderstood for _pairson_, and went away and laughed at, for
pedantry and affectation.

So, too, when I first knew him, and for a long time after, he was
incapable of making a speech. Even a few sentences were too much for
him; and though he argued at least one case to the court, while in
business at Newburyport, I am persuaded, from what I afterward knew of
him, that he must have done what he did by jerks, or have committed the
whole to memory. And this, strange as it may now appear to those who
knew him only as a lecturer and platform-speaker, continued long after
he had entered upon the ministry; but of this more hereafter. Even his
prayers were written out, and learned by heart, years after he took
charge of the Hollis Street Church, though I dare say it was not known
by his people. Perhaps, too, I may as well say here, lest I may forget
to say it hereafter, that, at the time I speak of, he was neither a
phrenologist, nor a spiritualist, nor a conscientious believer in
witchcraft, or rather in the phenomena that used to be called
witchcraft, in the days of Cotton Mather.

Soon after the beginning of our acquaintance, Mr. Joseph L. Lord, the
brother of his first wife,--and he too has just passed away,--seeing