HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT. XXxiii 
that is spoken of me; that with me no witness can be ever more con¬ 
fronted ; that from no accusation, how false soever, can I prove my¬ 
self not guilty. Of all cowardice, the most base and cruel is to strike 
the dead, who can make no defence or answer. 
I ask no praise—do not praise me—probably I deserve none. 
I deserve reproach, doubtless, for I am mortal, and have sinned. 
Say so, then, of me, if you say any thing, and let my sins go with my 
mortality to His judgment who can tell not only when and where, but 
why they were committed, and how far they have palliation, how far 
they deserve pardon. 
Remember, also, when you judge me, that of all lives mine has 
been, almost, the most unhappy. Ho counsellor, no friend, no country, 
have been mine for six and twenty weary years. Every hope has broken 
down under my foot as soon as it has touched it. Every spark of 
happiness has been quenched as soon as it has been kindled. If I have 
sinned much, and sorrowed much, I have also loved much—more, per¬ 
haps, than I have either sinned or sorrowed. It is the last drop that 
overflows the golden bowl, the last tension that breaks the silver 
cords. My last hope is gone—my last love and my life go together, 
and so good night to 
Henry Herbert. 
May 16,1858. 
At the first announcement of Herbert’s death, his 
friends naturally viewed his last injunction of “ silence ” 
in a positive and forbidding sense, and the following 
hasty, but evidently heartfelt, remarks were immediately 
written by the gifted and renowned a Acorn,” whose 
friendship Herbert had had the honor of enjoying. Surely 
any very bad man could not have caused so spontaneous 
an expression of refined and honorable feelings from his 
literary compeers and associates, especially from one 
whose acquaintance had existed for a quarter of a cen¬ 
tury :— 
HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT. 
“ The evil that men do lives after them; 
The good is oft interred with their bones.” 
The friends of H. W. Herbert, in this city, were appalled at the 
announcement of his death, a few days since. The sad intelligence 
