through the whole day, from all the apprehensions and agonies of mortality, at about twenty minutes after ten o'clock, on Thursday night last. My dear child! these events are no proper subjects of grief with respect to the person whom the hand of Death has snatched from our sight, and our society; but dictate many an important lesson to the surviving relatives and friends. Death in itself is no evil, under the Christian dispensation, nor is it ever spoken of as an evil in those records which we consider as the directory of our sentiments in this respect: but the reflection of that awful crisis which awaits us all, and will transfer us to the innumerable multitudes of former generations, should convince us of the utmost insignificance of all earthly objects, but those which have a tendency to administer consolation, and inspire hopes at that momentous period. The purification of our own hearts, the restraint of every irregular, unfriendly and unedifying passion, with an unceasing cultivation of every benevolent affection, and every gentle and kind propensity; in short, the extinction, as much as possible, of all unfruitful selfishness, for the promotion of the general happiness, and especially the happiness of those with whom our daily intercourse is conversant; these are the proper suggestions to a rational mind from such privations of all that we loved and valued; that the tears, which sympathy and affection and sensibility will delight to shed, may not fall unavailing and unfruitful to the ground. I hope my dear children will live to see me leave the world with that complacency, with which one who has acted no disgraceful part upon the stage, and who leaves those, in whom he prides himself as his own, may be expected to leave it, with a hope full of immortality. Adieu, my dear girl! and accept every blissful wish for time, and eternity for yourself, and both the good families at Eton and Gateacre, from Your most affectionate father, GILBERT WAKEFIELD. In this interesting manner he endeavoured on all occasions to bring before his children his own enlarged views, and noble sentiments, respecting a future state. These, from too much experience, he had found most consolatory under his various trials and afflictions. To guard against the natural effect of such events to produce depression of spirits, he had recourse to his pen and his books, and his books, "the faithfullest friends and the pleasantest companions of a good conscience, amidst all the perturbations of terrestrial things, and all the vicissitudes of time and place." These were continually supplying some rational amusement or offering some new object for the employment of his talents. u He proceeded to wear out the long hours of his imprisonment, "abating neither heart nor hope." One of the present writers having expressed his surprise at his perseverance in some literary projects that required considerable mental exertion, he writes MY DEAR FRIEND, Dorchester Gaol, May 24, 1800. You have much obliged and gratified me by your friendly letter. My zeal for study, at which you wonder, is excited, or rather continued, by various inducements. 1. The necessity of my situation, which leaves me no other resource. 2. The conviction of duty, which seems to impose that occupation on "Letter to Sir J. Scott," p. 31. every man, for which he feels himself strongly inclined, 3. The preparation which this life appears to furnish for another, in which, per haps, the same pursuits may go on, and be applied to beneficial purposes. 4. The hopes of making my studies useful, in better times, even in this life. And 5. The improvement of the intellectual faculties, which constitute the characteristic dignity of our nature. not. The maps will be such as I wish, I doubt My imitation of Juvenal! Very curious! As if a man can employ a printer in no work but his own! The author, no doubt, be he who he may, has some particular affection, and confidence, towards you, and wishes you to distribute them as you think proper; and may possibly have sent copies to other friends. Indeed, the remainder of them might come down to himself at the same time, if he happened to be receiving any maps of the seat of war in Germany or Italy; or such like. [one of the debtors] is much pleased by your remembrance of him. His affairs seem approaching to a crisis, but very slowly; as the day of our deaths, if we live to be eighty, is nearer than it was yesterday at noon. See the next chapter. |