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feeble; but after breakfast on Tuesday, the 17th, he appeared revived somewhat, and was again wheeled about on the turf. Presently he fell asleep in his chair, and after dozing for perhaps half an hour, started awake, and shak5 ing the plaids, we had put about him, from off his shoulders, said, "This is sad idleness. I shall forget what I have been thinking of, if I don't set it down now. Take me into my own room, and fetch the keys of my desk." He repeated this so earnestly that we could not refuse; 10 his daughters went into his study, opened his writingdesk, and laid paper and pens in the usual order, and I then moved him through the hall and into the spot where he had always been accustomed to work. When the chair was placed at the desk, and he found himself in the old 15 position, he smiled and thanked us, and said, “Now give me my pen, and leave me for a little to myself." Sophia* put the pen into his hand, and he endeavored to close his fingers upon it, but they refused their office-it dropped on the paper. He sank back among his pillows, silent 20 tears rolling down his cheeks; but composing himself, byand-by, motioned to me to wheel him out of doors again. Laidlaw met us at the porch, and took his turn of the chair. Sir Walter, after a little while, again dropped into slumber. When he was awaking, Laidlaw said to me, 25 "Sir Walter has had a little repose.' 'No, Willie," said he, "no repose for Sir Walter but in the grave." The tears again rushed from his eyes. Friends," said he, "don't let me expose myself; get me to bed that's the only place."

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With this scene ended our glimpse of daylight. Sir Walter never, I think, left his room afterwards, and hardly his bed, except for an hour or two in the middle of the day; and after another week he was unable even to do this.

*Sophia was Mrs. Lockhart, Scott's eldest daughter

After this he declined daily, but still there was great strength to be wasted, and the process was long. He seemed, however, to suffer no bodily pain, and his mind, though hopelessly obscured, appeared, when there was 5 any symptom of consciousness, to be dwelling, with rare exceptions, on serious and solemn things; the accent of the voice, grave, sometimes awful, was never querulous, and very seldom indicative of any angry or resentful thoughts.

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All this time he continued to recognize his daughters, Laidlaw, and myself, whenever we spoke to him, and received every attention with a most touching thankfulness. Mr. Clarkson, too, was always saluted with the old courtesy, though the cloud opened but a moment for him 15 to do so. Most truly might it be said that the gentleman survived his genius.

As I was dressing on the morning of Monday, the 17th of September, Nicholson came into my room, and told me that his master had wakened in a state of composure and 20 consciousness, and wished to see me immediately. I found him entirely himself, though in the last extreme of feebleness. His eye was clear and calm, every trace of the wild fire of delirium extinguished. "Lockhart," he said, "I may have but a minute to speak with you. 25 My dear, be a good man; be virtuous; be religious; be a good man. Nothing else will give you any comfort when you come to lie here.": He paused, and I said, Shall I send for Sophia and Anne ?" "No," said he, don't disturb them. Poor souls! I know they were up 30 all night. God bless you all!" With this he sank into a very tranquil sleep; and, indeed, he scarcely afterwards

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*These are remarkable words. Here was a man who had won the highest prizes of life; had gained the most splendid literary reputation; had been honored, flattered, and caressed as few men have ever been; and yet, at the last moment, falls back for support on moral worth and religious faith -- that possession which all may earn.

† Anne was his second daughter.

gave any sign of consciousness, except for an instant on the arrival of his sons. They, on learning that the scene

was about to close, obtained a new leave of absence from their posts, and both reached Abbotsford on the 19th. 5 About half past one P. M., on the 21st of September, Sir Walter breathed his last, in the presence of all his children.

It was a beautiful day; so warm that every window was wide open, and so perfectly still that the sound of all 10 others most delicious to his ear, the gentle ripple of the Tweed over its pebbles, was distinctly audible as we knelt around the bed, and his eldest son kissed and closed his eyes.

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[WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT was born in Salem, Massachusetts, May 4, 1796, and died in Boston, January 28, 1859. His grandfather was Colonel William Prescott, who commanded in the redoubt at Bunker Hill. He is the author of four historical works-"The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella," "The History of the Conquest of Mexico,' ," "The History of the Conquest of Peru," and "The History of the Reign of Philip the Second;" which last was left unfinished at the time of his death. These are all productions of great merit, and have received the highest commendations at home and abroad. Among their most conspicuous excellences may be mentioned their thoroughness of investigation and research. Mr. Prescott examined, with untiring industry, all possible sources of information, whether in print or in manuscript, which could throw light upon the subjects of which he treated. This was the more honorable to him, as, in consequence of an accident in college, he was deprived, to a considerable degree, of the use of his eyes, and was constantly obliged to make use of the sight of others in prosecuting his studies. He was also candid in his judgments alike of historical personages and of particular periods. The character of his mind forbade his being a partisan on any side; and he preferred to state cases rather than to argue them.

Besides these substantial merits of learning and sound judgment, his works have an element of attraction in their style and manner, which, more than anything else, has contributed to their great popularity. He describes scenes and narrates events with the greatest beauty and animation; and the subjects he has chosen-dealing with romantic adventure among the mountains of Spain, or in the splendid scenery of Mexico and Peru-give ample scope to this power. There is a limpid purity and engaging sweetness in his style,

which lead the reader along from page to page unconsciously, and lend to truth all the charm of fiction.

Mr. Prescott was a man of most amiable character and engaging manners, and greatly beloved by all who knew him.

The following extract is from an article in the "North American Review."]

TAKE it for all and all, it is not too much to say that the character of Sir Walter Scott is probably the most remarkable on record. There is no man of historical celebrity that we now recall, who combined, in so eminent 5 a degree, the highest qualities of the moral, the intellectual, and the physical. He united in his own character what hitherto had been found incompatible. Though a poet, and living in an ideal world, he was an exact, methodical man of business; though achieving with the most 10 wonderful facility of genius, he was patient and laborious; a mousing antiquarian, yet with the most active interest in the present and whatever was going on around him; with a strong turn for a roving life and military adventure, he was yet chained to his desk more hours, at some periods 15 of his life, than a monkish recluse; a man with a heart as capacious as his head; a Tory, brimful of Jacobitism, yet full of sympathy and unaffected familiarity with all classes, even the humblest; a successful author, without pedantry and without conceit; one, indeed, at the head of 20 the republic of letters, and yet with a lower estimate of letters, as compared with other intellectual pursuits, than was ever hazarded before.

The first quality of his character, or, rather, that which forms the basis of it, as of all great characters, was his 25 energy. We see it, in his early youth, triumphing over the impediments of nature, and, in spite of lameness, making him conspicuous in every sort of athletic exercise -clambering up dizzy precipices, wading through treacherous fords, and performing feats of pedestrianism that 30 make one's joints ache to read of. As he advanced in life, we see the same force of purpose turned to higher objects.

We see the same powerful energies triumphing over

disease at a later period, when nothing but a resolution to get the better of it enabled him to do so. “Be assured,” he remarked to Mr. Gillies, "that if pain could have prevented my application to literary labor, not a page of 5 Ivanhoe would have been written. Now if I had given

way to mere feelings, and had ceased to work, it is a question whether the disorder might not have taken a deeper root, and become incurable."

Another quality, which, like the last, seems to have 10 given the tone to his character, was his social or benevolent feelings. His heart was an unfailing fountain, which not merely the distresses, but the joys of his fellow-creatures made to flow like water.

Rarely indeed is this precious quality found united with 15 the most exalted intellect. Whether it be that Nature, chary of her gifts, does not care to shower too many of them on one head; or that the public admiration has led the man of intellect to set too high a value on himself, or at least his own pursuits, to take an interest in the infe20 rior concerns of others; or that the fear of compromising his dignity puts him "on points" with those who approach him; or whether, in truth, the very magnitude of his own reputation throws a freezing shadow over us little people in his neighborhood — whatever be the cause, it is too 25 true that the highest powers of mind are very often deficient in the only one which can make the rest of much worth in society - the power of pleasing.

Scott was not one of these little great. His was not one of those dark-lantern visages which concentrate all 30 their light on their own path, and are black as midnight to all about them. He had a ready sympathy, a word of contagious kindness or cordial greeting for all. His manners, too, were of a kind to dispel the icy reserve and awe which his great name was calculated to inspire.

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He relished a good joke, from whatever quarter it came, and was not over-dainty in his manner of testifying his

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