LITERARY AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 385 



hoping to find, as he had done of old, some comfort in communion 

 with outward nature. It was Spring, too, his very love for which 

 carried with it a vague presage of evil. 



"Tea! mournful thoughts like these even now arise, 

 While Spring, like Nature's smiling infancy, 

 Sports round me, and all images of peace 

 Seem native to this earth, nor other home 

 Desire or know ; yet doth a mystic chain 

 Link in our hearts foreboding fears of death, 

 With every loveliest thing that seems to us 

 Most deeply fraught with life." 



Thus did he meet the fair season so loved of old, sighing — 



" the heavy change, now thou art gone ; 

 Now thou art gone, and never must return!" 



I may observe here, without any unfilial disrespect, that his deep sor- 

 row was not without its good influence on the sufferer. Those who 

 had known him were well aware of the sincerity of his religious 

 belief, and of his solemn and silent adoration of the Saviour ; but 

 it was observed from this time that his faith exercised a more con- 

 stant sway over his actions. The tone of his writings is higher, 

 and they contain almost unceasing aspirations after the spiritual. 

 The same humility, which in a singular degree now made him so 

 modest and unobtrusive with the public, ordered all his ways in 

 private life. The humble opinion he had of himself could have 

 arisen from no other source than from reverence to God, whose ser- 

 vant he felt himself to be, and debtor beyond all for the possession 

 of those gifts which, in the diffidence of his soul, he hoped he had 

 used, " if not for the benefit, not for the detriment of his fellow- 

 mortals." As a specimen of his thoughts, and as introductory to 

 the life of peace and charity which he led in his seclusion at Roslin, 

 I refer my readers to a noble passage on Intellect ;* it forms a touch- 

 ing contrast to the simplicity and tenderness of disposition which 

 caused him to turn aside from these lofty communings to the com- 

 mon humanities of nature. He was well known in the houses of 

 the poor. ~No humble friend was ever cast aside if honest and up- 

 right. During the summer, an old servant of my mother's, who 

 had formerly lived many years in her service, had fallen into bad 

 health, and was ordered change of air. She was at once invited to 



* " Our Pocket Companions," Mackwood'8 Magasine, vol. yliv., Is38. 

 1G* 



