42 MEMOIR OF DR. BAR VJEY. 



To Miss F. 



Limerick, November 11th, 1834. 

 As to myself, my dear S., I am quite well. I know how 

 thou hast been feeling for me, and thy sympathy is very 

 precious. I have indeed been stripped of my chief stay, and at 

 a time when I least expected it. It is nothing to say that the 

 shock was stunning. 



Every day I feel more and more that my foundations have 

 been shaken, and that I am thrown on the world to stand or to 

 fall. I have not only lost my sweet companion, my more than 

 indulgent father, but I am deprived of my early protector, 

 under whose wing I have so long and so thoughtlessly nestled. 



Not but that I have abundance still to be thankful for — 

 friends to love, and be loved by. I have not to dread that I 

 shall be desolate or lonely. Surely I cannot be so while I have 

 my sister and thyself left. How different would my situation 

 have been had this blow come when I was younger, and less 

 able to push my way in life ! 



I have often thought, and latterly more than ever, how un- 

 worthy we all are, and myself in particular, of such parents, 

 and of possessing such treasures for so long a period. Each 

 lived the full allotted portion of human life, beyond which it is 

 labour and sorrow. I do not wish to ascribe reasons to Omni- 

 potence, but, watching by the bedside on the first night of death, 

 I felt that, in mercy to him, he was taken. He had finished 

 his course ; he had kept the faith. There was no more for him 

 to do, and, with regard to his family, he had seen his chief 

 wishes fulfilled. I enclose a copy of his last letter to 

 E. A., written just a week before his death. It shows of what 

 spirit he was to the last, and, taken in conjunction with his long 

 and exemplary life, it is really a beautiful letter. 



To Dr. Hooker. 



Ashbourne, Limerick, November 12th, 1834. 



My dear father's removal was indeed most sudden, but to 



himself, I believe, it was no surprise, for since my dear mother's 



death, three years ago, he seemed weaned from earth, and to 



be preparing for a purer and better world. Yet it was beauti- 



