408 NOTICE OF THE LATE SIR CHARLES BELL. 



a fit person to maintain the great argument which it was the purpose of that no- 

 bleman's bequest to have published. The part which Sir CHARLES himself select- 

 ed was " The Hand," that which seemed chiefly to have been in the mind of the 

 testator ; and we all know how admirably he executed the task. 



Still following out this favourite subject of his contemplation, he associated 

 himself with Lord BROUGHAM in the illustration of Dr PALEY'S Natural Theology, 

 published in 1836 ; and every one who has looked into that publication must ac- 

 knowledge the high additional interest which these illustrations derive from his 

 delightful contributions. 



Of his private character this may not be the place to speak ; but the highest 

 eminence in science receives so great an additional lustre from being associated 

 with the most amiable and estimable social virtues, that it would be unjust not 

 to remind you how largely he was endowed with these. It was in the exercise 

 and the indulgence of the friendship and the affection of social and domestic life, 

 and in the contemplation of still higher objects, that he found the reward of his . 

 labours and a solace in his difficulties and disappointments ; and if he was but ill 

 requited by his country, for devoting his life so successfully to the advancement 

 of science, instead of employing it, as he might have done with equal success, in 

 improving his own circumstances, he enjoyed while he lived a happiness which 

 wealth alone could not have bestowed, in the devoted attachment of one who was 

 in every way worthy of the undivided affection with which he regarded her. 



After a cheerful and peaceful day of calm contemplation and tranquil enjoy- 

 ment, he was suddenly seized with a spasmodic affection duringt he night, and 

 died, after an hour's illness, on the 29th of April 1842, at Hollow Park, in Worces- 

 tershire ; and if he left behind him none of the wealth which a more sordid mind 

 might, with his genius, have accumulated, he left an enduring and unsullied repu- 

 tation, of which the most ambitious of his surviving friends may well be proud, 

 and with which the most virtuous must be more than satisfied. 



