11
"Richard," said I, "if you recollect, you were going to tell me of a conversation you had with Edmund Plush."
"Yes, Sir," he replied; "I had two or three days' work, pointing his garden wall; (for Edmund is very curious about his fruit, especially about some favourite Orlean plums:) and one day, as he was standing by me, and running on with his talk about alterations and reforms, he said, among other observations not very moderate, that the Church Prayer Book wanted to be altered and reformed as much as any thing."
To this I replied, that "alteration was one thing, and reform was another; and that if the Prayer Book was altered, it did not follow that it would be reformed."
"He then went on to say, that while he was footman at Squire Martingal's, over in Cheshire, one day, when he was waiting at table, and there were four or five gentlemen at dinner, they were talking about the Prayer Book, and whether it was not now time for it to be altered.
"And the Squire gave it as his opinion that there was one word in particular which he wished very much to see put entirely out of the Book; and that was, the word 'damnation.' Such words as that, he said, ought not to be in a book, which gentlefolks were expected to sit and hear.
"Edmund went on to say, that there was a gentleman at the table, who observed, it would be better to alter the word to 'condemnation:' of which the company very much approved, though, (as Plush himself remarked,) it was not easy to see what was gained by the alteration.
"Now, Sir, it does seem to me, that Squire Martingal and his friends forgot, when they made such short work with the Prayer Book, that there was the Bible still in their way, quite as much needing to be corrected and amended.
"And I told Edmund so; and I also told him, that if I were in his place, I should not like to go about repeating private conversations which he might have overheard at his master's table; especially when they were so little calculated to be of use.
"However, Edmund must do as he pleases; but for myself, Sir, I do assure you, that after giving the subject the best consideration in my power, the objections which people make against
