16 A Trihule lo the Memuty of 



intendence of some chemical concerns, prevented him from at- 

 tempting- more than to keep pace with the progress of know- 

 ledge. He was in no haste, however, to claim that exemption 

 from active labour, to which advanced age is fairly entitled, and 

 it was not till a very few years before his death, that !ie retired 

 from the exercise of the medical profession. 



The summers of the years 1814 and 1815 were spent by Mr. 

 Henry in the country, a mode of life, which, now that his season 

 of active exertion was passed, was peculiarly suited to him, not 

 only by the tranquil retirement which it afforded, but by its en- 

 abling him to indulge that sensibility to the charms of rural 

 scenery, which can, perhaps, only exist in a pure and virtuous mind. 

 His perception of these pleasures was at no period more lively, 

 than after he had entered his 81st year. In a note, addressed 

 to the writer of these pages, in the autumn of 1815, he describes, 

 in animated language, one of those events, which so agreeably 

 diversify the face of nature in the country. " Yesterday," he 

 says, " we had one of the most beautiful appearances in the 

 garden I ever witnessed. Every leaf — every petal — every pro- 

 jecting fibre — was beset with a minute globule of water, and 

 when the sun shone upon the flowers and shrubs, they seemed 

 as if studded with myriads of brilliants. The gossamer, too, 

 with which the hedges were covered, was adorned with the same 

 splendent appendages. The cause," he adds, " of this deposition 

 of moisture must, I suppose, have been electrical." 



The winter of the year 1815, which Mr. Henry passed in 

 Manchester, was a season of greater suffering than was usual to 

 him; for though of a delicate constitution, yet he happily, even 

 at this advanced time of life, enjoyed an almost entire exemption 

 from painful diseases. During this winter, he was much dis- 

 tressed by cough and difficult breathing, and his bodily strength 

 rapidly declined. In the spring of the following year, he re- 

 turned into the country, but not to the enjoyments which he had 

 before derived from it. He was unable to take his customary 

 walks, and was oppressed by feelings, which induced him to look 

 forwards to the close of life, with the certainty of its near ap- 

 proach, but with calm and dignified resignation. The event, 



