d even reading is a very trying ordeal, notwithstanding
the paper tubes through which he looks at the print, and which afford
him much interest and amusement. So the Diary goes on to its pathetic
close:--"And thus ends all that I doubt I shall ever be able to do with
my own eyes in the keeping of my Journal, I being not able to do it any
longer, having done now so long as to undo my eyes almost every time
that I take a pen in my hand; and, therefore, whatever comes of it, I
must forbear; and, therefore, resolve, from this time forward, to have
it kept by my people in long-hand, and must be contented to set down
no more than is fit for them and all the world to know; or, if there be
anything, I must endeavour to keep a margin in my book open, to add,
here and there, a note in shorthand with my own hand.

"And so I betake myself to that course, which is almost as much as to
see myself go into my grave; for which, and all the discomforts that
will accompany my being blind, the good God prepare me!--S.P."

It is comforting to know that, in spite of these fears, he did not grow
blind, but preserved a certain measure of sight to the end of his
career.

In regard to money and accounts, his character and conduct present the
same extraordinary mixture as is seen in everything else that concerns
him. Money flows profusely upon valentines, gloves, books, and every
sort of thing conceivable; yet he grudges the price of his wife's dress
although it is a sum much smaller than the cost of his own. He allows
her L30 for all expenses of the household, and she is immensely pleased,
for the sum is much larger than she had expected. The gift to her of a
necklace worth L60 overtops all other generosity, and impresses himself
so much that we hear of it till we are tired. A man in such a position
as his, is bound to make large contributions to public objects, both in
the forms of donations and of loans; but caution tempers his public
spirit. A characteristic incident is that in which he records his
genuine shame that the Navy Board had not lent any money towards the
expenses caused by the Fire and the Dutch War. But when the loan is
resolved upon, he tells us, with delicious naivete, how he rushes in to
begin the list, lest some of his fellows should head it with a larger
sum, which he would have to equal if he came after them. He hates
gambling,--it was perhaps the one vice which never tempted him,--and he
records, conscientiously and very