LETTER TO MRS SYM. Sll 



heavy cold, and was himself laid aside for nearly two 

 months. On recovering, he wrote the following letter to 

 Mrs Sym : — 



" Woodville, 22d March 1855. 



"My dear Mrs Sym, — I need scarcely say how fre- 

 quently I have been thinking of yourself and your dear 

 children, during rny indisposition ; and regretting, among 

 other effects of my illness, that it should have so long 

 debarred me from seeing you and them. I am now, how- 

 ever, quite better, and trust to a renewal of that intercourse 

 from which, for many a year, I have derived such un- 

 alloyed enjoyment. Alas ! it cannot be, in one of its 

 features, what it once was ; but it is very consolatory for 

 me to think, that during our long and intimate acquain- 

 tance, not a shadow of a cloud has ever interposed between 

 your husband's friendship and my own. I may surely 

 say, that ' while dead, he yet speaketh,' for I fondly dwell 

 on much of our intercourse, which related not to the things 

 of earth, but now forms a portion of those golden links 

 which lead our thoughts to heaven. 



" He knew in whom to trust, and he had also the blessed 

 privilege of being able to shew to others the way that 

 leadeth to eternal life. Blessed are they who die in the 

 Lord, and may our end be like his. The thing that has 

 happened is hard to be realised, and I sometimes think 



