1846.] 



HERBERT MA R TINEA U. 



I immediately took up the strain, entered into an interesting 

 conversation about mice, and very soon the sums were done, 

 and he was as affectionate and penitent as possible. But I 

 shall never stop if I tell you all the school gossip. When I 

 get among boys, I always want to be a schoolmaster." 



After referring to deaths in his congregation, he adds : 

 " Monday brought the sad intelligence of Herbert's [Mar- 

 tineau's] death. I loved him as a brother, and wrote to him 

 every week, I think, and I am so glad to find that these letters, 

 and presents of shells, etc., were a great comfort to him. I 

 think some of you sent a drawing which pleased him very 

 much. I never knew such an angelic spirit in human form ; 

 day and night he has been in my thoughts and prayers, and 

 his heavenly face and the expressive tones of his voice haunt 

 me like an unearthly vision. I wish you. could have heard him 

 sing his favourite hymn, 6 Thou who didst stoop below.' 

 Except when our own father was removed, I never felt such a 

 rending of my heart before. The feeling is as though heaven 

 had been tabernacling on earth, and was taken back again ; 

 and if / feel it so, what must his parents suffer ! " * Years after, 

 he records that it had made a void which had never been 

 filled. He kept Herbert's notes, and cherished his memory to 

 the last. " I never knew" (he wrote in 1847) " sucn a boy as 

 he was, so very pure and loving, and beautiful and holy : he 

 seemed one of those angelic spirits that God sometimes 

 sends down for a little time to show us that there really is a 

 heaven." 



The following are his impressions on hearing a lecture 

 by Mr. George Dawson on 6 1 German Literature : " — " I was 

 a little disappointed with his manner; there was not that 



* Over his grave in the burial-ground of the Ancient Chapel, Toxteth 

 Park, is this inscription : — 



" O life too fair, upon thy brow 

 We saw the light where thou art now. 

 O death too sad, in thy deep shade 

 All but one sorrow seemed to fade. 

 O heaven too rich, not long detain 

 Thine exiles from that sight again." 



