2 SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE. 



of the class that would have been greatly modified 

 by easier circumstances, had begun to drag him 

 back from various literary enterprises, which his 

 attempts at public lectures had marked out. The 

 lithe motion of body and of limb became touched 

 with the proofs of declining strength; yet, his many 

 personal friends never doubted on counting on his 

 familiar presence for years to come. Death, however, 

 came quickly and sternly, and after a brief struggle 

 with a paralytic seizure, John Younger succumbed. 

 In his views of life, and its allotments of trial, he 

 had ever cherished a wish that his end might come 

 under circumstances in which he wouldleave the 

 world without being a tax or trouble to any. The 

 wish was gratified; and the week that saw him look- 

 ing from the river head-lands of his beautiful Les- 

 sudden, saw him also lying in St Boswells' church- 

 yard. 



It is trite enough to remark, that John Younger 

 was no common man. His equal has seldom been 

 seen in the class to which he belonged. When it is 

 borne in mind that his education was exceedingly 

 meagre, costing from first to last not more than is now 

 expended on a middle class child in one quarter 

 that he plodded along in the same groove of occu- 

 pation and habit all his life long and had few 



