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that part of his character, which alone is now important to his happinefs; and I am authorized to add, not only from what appears in his printed works and private memoranda, in more than one of which, containing a delineation of his daily occupations, I find a portion of time allotted to the perufal of the Scriptures, but from private and fatisfactory teftimony, that the writings of our beft divines engaged a large fhare of his attention, and that private devotion was not neglected by him. The following lines, which afford a proof both of his tafte and piety, were written by him after a perufal of the eighth fermon of Barrow, in his retirement, at Crishna-nagur, in 1786; and with thefe I fhall conclude my obfervations on his religious opinions:

As meadows parch'd, brown groves, and withering flow'rs,
Imbibe the sparkling dew and genial show'rs;

As chill dark air inhales the morning beam,
As thirsty harts enjoy the gelid stream;
Thus to man's grateful soul from heav'n descend,
The mercies of his FATHER, LORD, and FRIEND.

I now turn to the laft fcene of the life of Sir William Jones. The few months allotted to his existence after the departure of Lady Jones, were devoted to his usual occupations, and more particularly to the discharge of that duty which alone detained him in India; the completion of the digeft of Hindu and Mohammedan law. But neither the consciousness of acquitting himself of an obligation which he had voluntarily contracted, nor his inceffant affiduity, could fill the vacuity occafioned by the absence of her, whofe fociety had fweetened the toil of application, and cheered his hours of relaxation. Their habits were congenial, and their pursuits in some respects fimilar: his botanical researches were facilitated by the eyes of Lady Jones, and by her talents in drawing; and their evenings were generally paffed together, in the perufal of the best modern authors in the different languages of Europe. After her departure, he mixed more in promifcuous fociety; but his affections were transported with her to his native

country.

On the evening of the 20th of April, or nearly about that date, after prolonging his walk to a late hour, during which he had imprudently remained in conversation, in an unwholefome fituation, he called upon the writer of these sheets, and complained of aguifh fymptoms, mentioned his intention to take fome medicine, and repeating jocularly an old proverb, that "an ague in the fpring is medi"cine for a king." He had no fufpicion at the time, of the real nature of his indifpofition, which proved in fact to be a complaint common in Bengal, an inflammation in the liver. The diforder was, however, foon discovered by the penetration of the physician, who after two or three days was called in to his affistance; but it had then advanced too far to yield to the efficacy of the medicines ufually prescribed, and they were administered in vain. The progrefs of the complaint was uncommonly rapid, and terminated fatally on the 27th of April, 1794. On the morning of that day, his attendants, alarmed at the evident fymptoms of approaching diffolution, came precipi

tately to call the friend who has now the melancholy task of recording the mournful event. Not a moment was loft in repairing to his house. He was lying on his bed in a pofture of meditation; and the only symptom of remaining life was a fmall degree of motion in the heart, which after a few feconds ceafed, and he expired without a pang or groan. His bodily fuffering, from the complacency of his features and the ease of his attitude, could not have been severe; and his mind must have derived confolation from thofe fources where he had been in the habit of feeking it, and where alone, in our laft moments, it can ever be found.

The deep regret which I felt at the time, that the apprehenfions of the attendants of Sir William Jones had not induced them to give me earlier notice of the extremity of his situation, is not yet obliterated. It would have afforded me an opportunity of performing the pleasing but painful office, of soothing his laft moments, and I fhould have felt the fincereft gratification in receiving his latest

commands; nor would it have been lefs fatisfactory to the public, to have known the dying fentiments and behaviour of a man, who had fo long and defervedly enjoyed fo large a portion of their efteem and admiration.

An anecdote of Sir William Jones (upon what authority I know not) has been recorded; that immediately before his diffolution, he retired to his closet, and expired in the act of adoration to his Creator. Such a circumftance would have been conformable to his prevailing habits of thinking and reflection: but it is not founded in fact; he died upon his bed, and in the fame room in which he had remained from the commencement of his indifpofition.

The funeral ceremony was performed on the following day with the honours due to his public ftation: and the numerous attendance of the most respectable British inhabitants of Calcutta, evinced their forrow. for his lofs, and their respect for his memory.

If

my fuccefs in describing the life of Sir William Jones has been proportionate to my

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