144 
ADAM SEDGWICK AND WILLIAM BUCKLAND. 
order and superposition of the Killas Rocks and their Fossils in 
Devonshire. Subsequently to this date his geological wi'itings were 
few. His health had never been very robust, and for several years 
before his death he may be said to have been a habitual invalid, 
compelled to pay the strictest attention to his diet in order to avoid 
serious illness. 
A year and a half before his death he wrote a letter to Professor 
Agassiz, from which the following is extracted. It exhibits his sense 
of declining health, and the keen hope of happiness in a future state. 
It is dated from The Close, Norwich, August 9th, 187 : — 
As for myself, at present I can do nothing except 
hobble daily on my stick from my house to the Cathedral, for I am 
afflicted by a painful lameness in my left knee. The load of years 
begins to press upon me, (I am now toiling through my 87th year), 
and my sight is both dim and irritable, so that as a matter of 
necessity I am generally compelled to employ an amanuensis. That 
part is now filled by a niece, who is to me in the place of a dear 
daughter. 
I need not tell you that the meetings of the British Association 
are still continued, and the last session (this year at Edinburgh) only 
ended yesterday, ... It is a great pleasure to me, my dear 
friend, to see again by the vision of memory that fine youthful person, 
that benevolent face, and to hear again, as it were, the cheerful ring 
of the sweet and powerful voice by which you made the old Scotchman 
start and stare while you were bringing to life again the fishes of 
their old red sandstone. I must be content with the visions of 
memory and the feelings they again kindle in my heart, for it will 
never be my happiness to see your face again in this world ; but let 
me as a Christian man hope that we may meet hereafter in heaven, 
and see such visions of God's glory in the moral and material universe 
as shall reduce to a mere germ everything that has been elaborated 
by the skill of man or revealed to God's creatures. 
I send you an old man's blessing, and remain, 
Your affectionate friend, 
Adam Sedgwick. 
♦ Op. cit., p. 687. 
