xxxiv MEMOIR 



directions in which his many-sided interests led him, 

 his life might have been spared for many years longer. 

 But, on the one hand, his enjoyment of life and all 

 that it offered to his active mind and wide sympathies 

 was so keen that it seemed impossible for him to draw 

 in ; on the other, his natural modesty led him to 

 fear that if he were not at once ready to take up every 

 piece of work as it came he might drop behind and be 

 overlooked in the struggle for existence. It was hard 

 to convince him that such fears were groundless, and 

 that there would always be a demand for work so 

 sincere and so stimulating as his." It had always 

 been rather a weakness of his to pride himself on 

 never doing anything slowly. Alas ! he could not 

 even live slowly, and so his life was over all too 

 soon. 



And yet even those who love him best cannot 

 but feel that for himself it is happier so, for had 

 he survived what proved to be his last illness, his 

 must have been but a feeble and flickering life. 

 Bravely as he had lived and worked in spite of ever- 

 increasing weakness until the end, an invalid's exist- 

 ence would have been almost intolerable to him, 

 and those who love and mourn him most cannot 

 be otherwise than thankful that his eager spirit is 

 spared the burden of inactive years. 



EDITH CORNISH. 



