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from that high Power in which all the Christian's hopes and confidence 'are centred, where I know you will seek for comfort and support; and I can suggest no means of consolation beyond what I am sure your own mind will supply. * * *

I can fully understand the benefit you find in having active work to do. Every occupation which diverts the mind from thoughts which, if uninterrupted, might become overpowering, is always beneficial, and, in cases of affliction, is an essential blessing. Professional duties will force themselves on your attention: but besides these there are other things which may be made serviceable to the same end; and I trust you will soon find yourself able to attend to these in addition to the more imperative.— R. C. H., Letter, 1872.

I am sorry to condole with you on the loss you have sustained; * * * and doing so, feel that with advanced age, the party going feels the propriety of leaving seniority to a survivor. In my own person the consciousness grows on me. As my Father expressed it of himself, "God's will be done! I am thankful for the favors I have received! I hope my life-trust has been satisfactorily performed." Age promises little increase of favor to be received; its tranquillity does afford hope of a passage from life without suffering.-W. L., Letter, 1868.

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months were over my valued friend had made that passage himself.

... Multa ab eo prudenter disputata, multa etiam breviter et commodè dicta, memoriæ mandabam; fierique studebam ejus prudentiâ doctior. - CIC. de Amic. i.

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I am sorry to hear of the death of ***

Looking at these things from a purely selfish point of view, one feels that there are so few persons who really care for one in the world, that, when one of these leaves us, and then an other, it is like cutting away our heart-strings till all the music is mute at last. Letter from a Gentleman, 1868.

Although the sympathy of friends may afford some slight gratification, it can not alleviate the distress arising from the loss of those who are near and dear to us. * * *

To him who is gone the surrender of life in this world is the greatest gain; for although he always seemed to enjoy life as a blessing, (which the Almighty intends it to be to us,) yet he never failed to show in his habitual conduct that he regarded it as a preparation for a higher state of existence on which his thoughts and hopes were fixed and to that better life he is now taken. He has been blessed with a calm and contented disposition, which saved him from many worldly annoyances and discomforts which persons of other temperaments meet with: his life in this world has been extended beyond what is ordinarily given to

mankind, and his end has been apparently calm and peaceful, unattended by pain or distress of any kind. These are considerations that bring real comfort in domestic bereavements; and since it is inevitable that we must all be parted in this world by death, it is in such that we find our best consolation. — R. C. H., Letter, 1881.

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The effects of grief on the body, Physicians have daily occasion to witness and deplore: but they remark that its influence is very different at an early from what it is at a late period of life. A mind actively engaged in youth in the pursuit of fame and fortune, is hardly vulnerable by any disaster which does not immediately stop its career of success; and if a deep impression be made by misfortune, new schemes of ambition and the gradual influence of time contribute to obliterate it; but sorrow late in life has fewer resources, and more easily .lets in disease.— SIR HENRY HALFORD, Essays, i.

196

XI. REVIEW OF LIFE.

URELY you will say, if there is anything in this life which a man may depend upon, and to the knowlege of which he is capable of arriving upon the most indisputable evidence, it must be this very thing,-Whether he has a good conscience, or no.

If a man thinks at all, he can not well be a stranger to the true state of this account.

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In other matters we may be deceived by false appearances.—STERNE, Sermon xxvii.

Meanwhile there is no darkness unto conscience; which can see without light, and in the deepest obscurity give a clear draught of things, which the cloud of dissimulation hath concealed from all eyes. There is a natural standing Court within us, examining, acquitting, and condemning at the tribunal of ourselves; wherein iniquities have their natural Thetas, and no nocent is absolved by the verdict of himself. And therefore although our transgressions shall be tried at the last bar, the process need not be long: for the Judge of all knoweth all, and every man will nakedly know himself; and when so few are like to plead

not guilty, the Assize must soon have an end.— SIR T. BROWNE, Christian Morals, P. 1, S. xxii.

Every man does or should know the plagues of his own heart, and what false steps he has made in the several turns and periods of his Christian course; by what means he fell, and upon what rocks he split. I say, every rational, thinking, reflecting man must needs know this: for he who has the mind of a man, must remember, and he, who remembers what has fallen out, will be watchful against what may.— SOUTH, Sermons, &c. 6th. Disc. concerning Temptation.

No longer wander at hazard; for neither wilt thou read thy own memoirs, nor the acts of the ancient Romans and Hellenes, and the selections from books which thou wast reserving for thy old age. Hasten then to the end which thou hast before thee, and, throwing away idle hopes, come to thy own aid, if thou carest at all for thy own self, while it is in thy power. *

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Look within. Within is the fountain of good; and it will ever bubble up if thou wilt ever dig. - M. ANTONINUS, translated by G. Long, iii. 14, vii. 59.

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Of other men's actions, whether they proceed from a good or an evil principle, except in the case of notorious vices, he may very easily judge amiss. But concerning himself, if a man seriously considers, he can not but know, whether he is governed in general by considerations of reason

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