ughts was a "fellow of infinite jest;" and of the
pathetic Rowe, Pope says--"He would laugh all day long--he would do
nothing else but laugh."]

* * * * *

The correspondence which I am now about to insert, though long since
published by the gentleman with whom it originated[70], will, I have no
doubt, even by those already acquainted with all the circumstances, be
reperused with pleasure; as, among the many strange and affecting
incidents with which these pages abound, there is not one, perhaps, so
touching and singular as that to which the following letters refer.

TO LORD BYRON.

"Frome, Somerset, November 21. 1821.

"My Lord,

"More than two years since, a lovely and beloved wife was taken
from me, by lingering disease, after a very short union. She
possessed unvarying gentleness and fortitude, and a piety so
retiring as rarely to disclose itself in words, but so influential
as to produce uniform benevolence of conduct. In the last hour of
life, after a farewell look on a lately born and only infant, for
whom she had evinced inexpressible affection, her last whispers
were 'God's happiness! God's happiness!' Since the second
anniversary of her decease, I have read some papers which no one
had seen during her life, and which contain her most secret
thoughts. I am induced to communicate to your Lordship a passage
from these papers, which, there is no doubt, refers to yourself; as
I have more than once heard the writer mention your agility on the
rocks at Hastings.

"'Oh, my God, I take encouragement from the assurance of thy word,
to pray to Thee in behalf of one for whom I have lately been much
interested. May the person to whom I allude (and who is now, we
fear, as much distinguished for his neglect of Thee as for the
transcendant talents thou hast bestowed on him) be awakened to a
sense of his own danger, and led to seek that peace of mind in a
proper sense of religion, which he has found this world's
enjoyments unable to procure! Do Thou grant that his future example
may be productive of far more extensive benefit than his past
conduct and writings have been of evil; and may the Sun of
righteousness, which, we trust, will, at some future period, arise
on him, be bright in proportion to the darkness of those clouds
which guilt has rai