rental feelings as now occurred, was evidently beyond his strength. He avoided complaint almost

stitution, was committed to his management; but it was here his business to adapt an existing edifice to this destination by alterations and additions,—a task of more difficulty and less honor than the erection of an entirely new one. He also decorated the town and environs with several elegant villas, and other buildings; and if, in some instances, he was obliged to comply with the fondness for modern Gothic against the dictates of his own taste and judgement, his profound knowledge of the principles of construction on which this style depends, enabled him to give uncommon correctness and elegance, and what may be called an air of good sense, combined with picturesque effect, to these difficult imitations. These qualities were still more strikingly displayed in many designs for churches which he composed on different occasions, none of which, however, have yet been executed.

The progress of an architect in the higher branches of his art is in this country slow and difficult; because great ignorance, and consequently great indifference, on the subject of architectural beauty and deformity pervades the British public. In addition to this general cause of delay and disappointment, the success of Mr. E. Aikin was impeded by temporary and local obstacles, and most of all, perhaps, by the reserve, the timidity, the scrupulous delicacy, and the nice sense of honor which characterised him. Meantime, life was wearing away; a constitution never robust had been undermined by severe attacks of illness; spirits never very buoyant had begun to yield to depression, and the brilliant visions with which conscious genius had cheered the morning of existence began to fade from before him. These changes were beheld with anguish by the few who thoroughly knew and could duly appreciate his many great excellencies, moral and intellectual:—his extensive knowledge, his strong and clear judgement, his fine taste, and his ardent love of the good and fair;-the sweetness and serenity of his temper, the modest gracefulness of his manners, the moderation of his wishes, the manly independence of his principles, and the

entirely, but his anguish was profound, and its effects incurable. Enough of bodily strength however remained, to protract the struggle with existence till the mind was almost totally obscured. One sentiment alone, that of affectionate attachment towards those whose assiduity ministered to him all of comfort that he could yet enjoy, and to her, most of all, whose tried and faithful tenderness had best deserved a husband's love, survived and triumphed to the last.

After a long course of the distress and suffering incident to this form of natural decay, which those who have ever witnessed it will sufficiently conceive, and of which others may regard it as a privilege to be able to form no idea,-a stroke of apoplexy closed the scene on December 7th,

1822.

That life may not be prolonged beyond the power of usefulness, is one of the most natural, and apparently of the most reasonable wishes man can form for the future ;-it was almost the

perfect truth and probity which presided over all his words and actions. During the summer of 1819, he had struggled with difficulty through a protracted malady, and had been enabled to resume with some energy his professional occupations; but the seeds of disease still lurked in his constitution, and a winter journey from Liverpool to London the following Christmas perhaps hastened their deve. lopment. Alarming symptoms recurred with augmented force, and after a painful struggle he expired at his father's house, at Stoke Newington, on March 11th, 1820.

only one which my father expressed or indulged, and I doubt not that every reader will be affected with some emotions of sympathetic regret on learning that it was in his case lamentably disappointed. To those whose daily and hourly happiness chiefly consisted in the activity and enjoyment diffused over his domestic circle by his talents and virtues,-the gradual extinction of this mental light was a privation afflictive and humiliating beyond expression. But in all the trials and sorrows of life, however severe, enough of alleviation is blended to show from what quarter they proceed; and there were still circumstances which called for grateful acknowledgement. The naturally sweet and affectionate disposition of my dear father; his strictly temperate and simple habits of living, and the mastery over his passions which he had so constantly exercised, were all highly favorable circumstances; and their influence long and powerfully counteracted the irritability of disease, and caused many instructive and many soothing and tender impressions to mingle with the anxieties and fatigues of our long and melancholy attendance. His literary tastes were another invaluable source of comfort; long after he was incapacitated from reading to himself, he would listen with satisfaction during many hours in the day to the reading of others;

poetry in particular exercised a kind of spell over him; Virgil and Horace he heard with delight for a considerable period, and the English poets occasionally, to the very last. The love of children, which had always been an amiable feature in his character, likewise remained; and the sight of his young grand-children sporting around him, and courting his attention by their affectionate caresses, had often the happy effect of rousing him from a state of melancholy languor and carrying at least a transient emotion of pleasure to his heart. His health also continued generally good almost to the end, and we had seldom the distress of seeing him under the influence of bodily pain. The final boon, an easy dismissal from life, was also granted him.

He was interred in the church-yard of Stoke Newington, where a simple monument is erected to his memory with the following inscription:

In memory of

JOHN AIKIN, M.D.

who was born at Kibworth in Leicestershire
Jan. 15th, 1747,

died in this parish

Dec. 7th, 1822.

A strenuous and consistent assertor

of the cause of civil and religious liberty
and of the free exercise of reason
in the investigation of truth.

Of unwearied diligence in all his pursuits,

he was characterised,

in his profession,

by skill, humanity, and disinterestedness;
in his writings,

by candor, by moral purity,
by good sense, and refined taste.
In the intercourse of society

he was affable, kind, cheerful, instructive;
as a husband, a father, and a friend,
unblemished, revered, and beloved.

To this summary of my father's character I have nothing here to add ;-should any desire a description of his outward form, let them accept the following. He was of the middle stature, and well proportioned, though spare; his carriage was erect, his step light and active. His eyes were grey and lively, his skin naturally fair, but, in his face, much pitted with the small pox. The expression of his countenance was mild, intelligent, and cheerful, and its effect was aided in conversation by the tones of a voice clear and agreeable, though not powerful. . The portrait prefixed to this work, is copied from a very resembling though unfinished water-coloured drawing, for which he sat to Wright about twelve years since.