134 ADDITIONAL COMMUNICATIONS 



be at any time able to show, how sensible we are of your good- 

 ness. And I have the honour to be," &c. 



In the month of December 1815, I had the pleasure of re- 

 ceiving a letter from Miss Mitchell, from which the follow- 

 ing is an extract. 



" I cannot say that my brother is making any very visible 

 progress in knowledge ; but he had a severe illness, about ten 

 or twelve months ago, which rather placed him in a new point 

 of view, and I shall endeavour to mention what we considered 

 as most striking in his conduct. In the first place, he seemed 

 very apprehensive of dying, at least we could not otherwise ac- 

 count for many of his actions, than by supposing they proceed- 

 ed from a fear of death. Although reduced to that state of de- 

 bility that he could not move without two people supporting 

 him, we never could prevail with him to lie a single day in 

 bed j he literally watched the first appearance of dawn, and 

 insisted on being dressed immediately, thinking, probably, 

 that he would not die out of bed. Any thing white, too, he 

 could not bear to see near his bed, or even in the room with 

 him. Several times, by accident, something white was thrown 

 across the foot of his bed, and he appeared most unhappy un- 

 til it was removed, attempting most eagerly to grasp it himself, 

 before we discovered the source of his uneasiness, in the 

 same way, too, when any linens were put to the fire to air by 

 him, he was in the greatest possible distress until they were ta- 

 ken out of his sight ; and this, when there was not any glare of 

 light that could affect him ; it, therefore, must have been some 

 idea connected with them that distressed him ; and from his 

 having always seen dead bodies laid out in white, we could on- 

 ly attribute his evident dislike, to his associating the idea of 

 death and this appearance together. He took a particular fan- 

 cy 



