NEARING THE END 253 



It was a work of devotion to a father's memory and 

 greatness, executed with untiring zeal and sometimes 

 at the risk of broken bones. She was unable to read 

 this record of the splendid work her nephew accom- 

 plished, when four years of laborious research, and a 

 longer period of study were at last crowned with 

 presenting to the world a book, of which " it may be 

 safely said, that no single publication, during the last 

 century, has made so many and such considerable 

 additions to our knowledge of the constitution of the 

 heavens." What she could not read herself, another 

 read for her, as her nephew recommended when he 

 sent her a copy of the work. 



As the end of life and activity drew nearer, there is 

 no longer the same desire to live she felt in previous 

 years: "I have been very ill and confined to my 

 room now three weeks, but it seems the Destroying 

 Angel has passed away, at which I am very glad, 

 because I wish to be a little better prepared for making 

 my exit than I am at present." She was then eighty 

 years of age. A few years later she began to feel 

 more keenly the sadness of life, and the longing for 

 something better than it ever gives. Many of the best 

 and brightest minds have felt as she felt when she 

 wrote these words : " The whole of yesterday I had no 

 other prospect but that it would have been the last of 

 the days of sorrow, trouble and disappointment I have 

 spent from the moment I had any recollection of my 

 existence, which is from between my third and fourth 

 year. ... In the night I fell out of one fainting fit 

 into another, and when I came to my recollection, be- 

 tween six and seven in the morning, I found Dr. G. 

 sitting before me talking loud in his usual nonsensical 



