202 BUSINESS, EECREATION ; SUNSHINE, SHADOW. 



severity in self-reviewing, John Foster says : — " When a 

 person's ill health is habitual, and complaints seldom 

 nttered, it is the fault of associates, who are themselves in 

 exempt condition, not to shew or feel the due attention or 

 sympathy. And it now comes upon me, with some degree 

 of regret and self-reproach, that I too seldom testified the 

 due sympathetic interest on this subject. It was an in- 

 terest which she most rarely claimed, and, therefore, should 

 have been the more spontaneously given. Not that I am 

 deeply accusing myself in this respect. I loved and valued 

 her deeply, cordially, and continually, and delighted to 

 reciprocate her devoted affection ; but it is strange to ob- 

 serve how anything that was less than the most watchful 

 attention can now come back to memory as a cause of 

 regret." But even from the gentlest measure of such up- 

 braiding* Mr Wilson was saved by the uniform solicitude 

 and tenderness with which he devoted himself to a wife 

 who had all the stronger claim on his sympathy from the 

 spirit with which she bore her infirmities, and the quiet 

 steadfastness with which she discharged domestic duties, 

 even in days of great personal suffering. Nevertheless, 

 although free from compunction, and blissfully assuaged 

 by the hope full of immortality, his grief was great ; and 

 it was well for him that an unusual pressure of literary 

 engagements necessitated the bestowment of some thought 

 on other themes. During the two following winters Mr 



