ead
conversation in that direction, he would either be silent, or in a
significant manner change the subject. He had a favourite copy of Dante
lying often near him, and it may be interesting to state, that he has
left, underscored in pencil, the two following verses in the third
canto, (_Del Purgatorio_,) expressive of faith in the great mysteries of
Christianity,--

"Matto e chi spera che nostra ragione,
Possa trascorrer la 'nfinita via,
Che tiene una sustanzia in tre persone.

State contente, umana gente, al quia:
Che si potuto aveste veder tutto,
Mestier non era partorir Maria."

It may not be necessary to say it, but I am persuaded that he was a firm
believer in the truths of Christianity, and a conscientious member of
the Church of England. One day, within about a fortnight of his death,
he said, "There is a work which I have often heard you speak of, and
which, it does so happen, I never read, though I have often wished to do
so; I mean Paley's _Horae Paulinae_. I may say almost that I know his
_Evidences_ off by heart. Now, will you do me the favour of procuring me
a copy of the other book, in as large type as you can, and as soon as
you can, for," he added with a slight sigh, after a pause, "I have not
much time to lose?" I immediately procured him the book in question; and
about three days afterwards he said to me, "I have read the Horae
Paulinae; it is a book of extraordinary merit; I very much wonder that I
never read it before." I asked him if he had read "Butler's Analogy."
"Oh yes, of course, several times, and know it well," he replied, rather
quickly. Life was visibly ebbing fast away during the first week in
December. He grew weaker and weaker almost hourly, and scarcely ever
rose from his sofa, where he always lay in his dressing-gown, except to
go to his bed-room, which adjoined and opened into his sitting-room. He
would even then allow no one to be in his chamber with him during the
might! not even his attentive and attached laundress, or his clerk! I
once very strongly urged upon him to allow the former to sleep in the
chambers. "Either she leaves my chambers at her usual hour," said he,
peremptorily, "or I do." We felt it, however, impossible to allow this;
and, without his being aware of it, his clerk and laundress by turns
continued to spend the night in one of the adjoining rooms. It was well
that such was the case, for he began to get delirious during the nights.
Ab