32 MEMOIROF 



last letter which I ever received from him, he ob- 

 serves : <I have just concluded the publication of 

 the translation of Levasseur's account of Lafayette's 

 progress through the United States, which will appear 

 next week. My health has for the last week or two 

 been very good, for me, since, notwithstanding my 

 rather excessive application during this time, I con- 

 tinue to do well. My cough and expectoration are 

 sufficiently troublesome ; but by light diet, and 

 avoiding all irritation, I have but very little trouble 

 from night sweats, and generally sleep tolerably well. 

 To-morrow I must resume my pen to complete some 

 articles of zoology for the Encyclopedia Americana, 

 now preparing in Boston. It shall be my constant 

 endeavour to husband my strength to the last; and, 

 by doing as much as is consistent with safety for the 

 good of my fellow-creatures, endeavour to discharge 

 a mite of the immense debt I owe for the never- 

 failing bounties of Providence/ n 



He did husband his strength, and he toiled with 

 his pen almost to the last hours of his life ; and by 

 thus doing has furnished us with a singular evidence 

 of the possibility of uniting the highest attainments 

 in science, and the most ardent devotion to letters, 

 with the firmest belief and the purest practice of the 

 Christian. But the period of his dissolution was not 

 distant : the summons arrived ; and conscious that 

 the messenger, who had been long in waiting, could 

 not be bribed to tarry, he commended his little family 

 in a fervent prayer to Him who has promised to be 

 the ' Father of the fatherless, and the widow's God/ 



