nesses, and thought so, yet always till now with
some tacit grain of counter-hope; he had never clearly felt so as now:
Here _is_ the end; the great change is now here!--Seeing how it was,
then, he earnestly gathered all his strength to do this last act of
his tragedy, as he had striven to do the others, in a pious and manful
manner. As I believe we can say he did; few men in any time _more_
piously or manfully. For about six months he sat looking steadfastly, at
all moments, into the eyes of Death; he too who had eyes to _see_ Death
and the Terrors and Eternities; and surely it was with perfect courage
and piety, and valiant simplicity of heart, that he bore himself, and
did and thought and suffered, in this trying predicament, more terrible
than the usual death of men. All strength left to him he still employed
in working: day by day the end came nearer, but day by day also some new
portion of his adjustments was completed, by some small stage his
task was nearer done. His domestic and other affairs, of all sorts, he
settled to the last item. Of his own Papers he saved a few, giving brief
pertinent directions about them; great quantities, among which a certain
Autobiography begun some years ago at Clifton, he ruthlessly burnt,
judging that the best. To his friends he left messages, memorials of
books: I have a _Gough's Camden_, and other relics, which came to me in
that way, and are among my sacred possessions. The very Letters of his
friends he sorted and returned; had each friend's Letters made into a
packet, sealed with black, and duly addressed for delivery when the time
should come.

At an early period of his illness, all visitors had of course been
excluded, except his most intimate ones: before long, so soon as the end
became apparent, he took leave even of his Father, to avoid excitements
and intolerable emotions; and except his Brother and the Maurices, who
were generally about him coming and going, none were admitted. This
latter form of life, I think, continued for above three months. Men were
still working about his grounds, of whom he took some charge; needful
works, great and small, let them not pause on account of him. He still
rose from bed; had still some portion of his day which he could spend
in his Library. Besides business there, he read a good deal,--earnest
books; the Bible, most earnest of books, his chief favorite. He still
even wrote a good deal. To his eldest Boy, now Mr. Newman's ward, who