284 JONATHAN OTLEY. 



same age. "Nay, Mr. Dalton was three 

 months my senior, having been born in Sep- 

 tember, 1776, and I in the January following."' 

 From his appearance, I should not have sup- 

 posed he was so old. Age has dealt kindly 

 with him ; and yet I fear he feels the pressure 

 of age, and finds the consolations of old age 

 but very inadequate. 



PISCATOR. And so these consolations, even 

 of the best kind, necessarily must be, old 

 age with failing faculties being the preparation 

 for death, in due course should be the weaning 

 from life. And contented ought we to be, 

 if we have the same consolations as this vene- 

 rable man can reckon upon, a well-spent life, 

 an intellect improved by self-education, and 

 the possession of bodily comforts, earned by 

 industry in an honest calling, and preserved 

 by frugality. He started as a basket-maker, 

 and became the assistant and companion of 

 men of science. In the excellent life of Dr. 

 Dalton, by Dr. Henry, one of the publications 

 of the Cavendish Society, you will see his 

 account of his mountain excursions with Dalton, 

 and a notice of the gas rising from the floating 

 island of which we were speaking, as an oc- 



