THE FOOT-SCRAPERS REPROVED.
When a preacher was very obnoxious to the students at Cambridge, it was the custom for them to express disapprobation by scraping with their feet on the floor. A very eloquent but intriguing preacher, Dr. James Scott—known as a political partisan by the pamphleteer and newspaper signatures of "Anti-Sejanus" and "Old Slyboots"—being one day saluted thus, signified his intention to preach against the practice of scraping; and fulfilled his promise very shortly afterwards, taking for his text, "Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools; for they consider not that they do evil." On the text being read out, the galleries became one scene of confusion and uproar; but Dr. Scott called to the proctors to preserve silence. This being effected, he delivered a discourse so eloquent, as to extort universal approbation, even from those at whom the text was aimed.