n 4 MORE POT-POURRI 



no man was more tolerant of the opinions of others. In 

 conversation he was animated, brilliant, amusing, and 

 profound, bringing sincerity, single-mindedness, and 

 knowledge to bear upon every discussion. His life, though 

 short, uneventful, and retired, was passed in the contem- 

 plation of subjects of interest, and worthiest to occupy the 

 thoughts of a good and wise man ; and the few intimacies 

 he cultivated were with congenial minds, estimable for 

 their moral excellence or distinguished by their intel- 

 lectual qualities and attainments. The world at large 

 will never know what virtues and talents have been 

 prematurely snatched away from it, for those only who 

 have seen Edward Villiers in the unrestraint and un- 

 reserve of domestic familiarity can appreciate the charm 

 of his disposition and the vigour of his understanding. 

 No stranger would have divined that under that cold and 

 grave exterior there lay concealed an exquisite sensibility, 

 the most ardent affections, and a mind fertile in every 

 good and noble quality. To the relations and friends who 

 were devotedly attached to him the loss is irreparable 

 and will long be deplored, and the only consolation which 

 offers itself is to be found in the circumstances of his end. 

 He was surrounded by kind and affectionate friends, and 

 expired in the arms of his wife, whose conduct he himself 

 described to have been that of a heroine as well as an 

 angel. He was in possession of all his faculties, and was 

 free from bodily pain. He died with the cheerfulness of 

 a philosopher and the resignation of a Christian happy, 

 devout and hopeful, and joyfully contemplating death in 

 an assured faith of a resurrection from the dead.' 



Only those who have been brought up by a widowed 

 mother whose whole life had been snapped asunder by 

 such a loss can quite realise how very peculiar and un- 

 like other homes it is. 



How rare it is to be perfectly natural under a great 



