"He came, and the first day of his return relieved me from a load of apprehension. He looked almost as I could have desired, far better than I had hoped to see him. In person, indeed, still slender and flexile as a young cypress; but then his tall form had shot up some inches since our last parting; and if his complexion was still that of almost feminine delicacy, it could have acquired no healthful bronze during the course of his sedentary labours, and it augured well for the future, that at least his constitution did not appear to have lost ground in the severe ordeal to which it had been subjected. In mind and heart I found him as he had ever been even as you remember him, Mr Lindsay, in the days of his beautiful boyhood. The purest, the most affectionate, the most endearing and interesting of created beings. And his intellectual powers, which were, I believe, of the first order, had expanded to a degree that surpassed even the sanguine expectations of his first tutor, our worthy rector, Mr Wilmot.

"The first few days of his return were devoted almost entirely to me, and to revisiting every spot of 'dear Merivale,' as he was ever wont to term the house I so fondly hoped he would inherit, which had been more particularly the scene of his boyish and youthful pleasures. But among them, his most cherished haunts were those associated with the memory of his lost sister-and often, during his stay at Merivale, would he steal away with his book to an arbour they had built together, from whence, over the sweetbrier-hedge which divided it from a small paddock, he could fondle and feed her

old white pony, who had his run for life in luxurious idleness.

"You have often smiled, Mr Lindsay, at the romantic fancies of the young dreamer,' as you used to call my poor Herbert. You read him well; and the natural enthusiasm of his character, acquiring strength with years, and becoming more concentrated as it was more carefully repressed, gained at last a morbid ascendency in the moral system. From his very infancy my Herbert, though at all times sweettempered, and often innocently gay and playful, was of a serious and thoughtful nature-loving to steal away by himself, and spent whole hours in the woods surrounding our house, or by the brook side, under pretence of angling. But his fishing-basket was brought home for the most part empty, and his tackle in a state little creditable to the young disciple of Isaac Walton, whose Complete Angler' was his darling companion; and contained evidence, on its fly-leaves and on every spot of blank paper, that the youthful fisherman was more emulous of his master's poetic vein, than of proficiency in his favourite sport.

"But we seldom ventured to jest with him on the subject of his unsuccessful wanderings, or to pry into the innocent mystery of his poetic secrets-his heightened colour and often glistening eye evincing on such occasions that painful shyness so generally characteristie of deep and acute sensibility. Time and thought, and solitary studies, had but fed and concentrated the secret flame, feeding it with high hopes and lofty aspirings, and glorious visions, but not of this world's glories.

"We had not been long together before I began to perceive, that if no unfavourable change had taken place in Herbert's bodily health, the tone of his mind had undergone alteration (and that of a disquieting nature) during his college residence. There was an increased degree of excitability about him. He fell more frequently, even in the social circle, into fits of long and deep abstraction; and if an opportunity occurred, seldom failed to steal away to his books or solitary musings, and I was not long in discovering that some change had taken place in his rell

gious views, and in the sober and rational purpose with which he had hitherto looked forward to his sacred destination.

6

"I found that his few college associates had been selected among a set of persons assuming to themselves the designation of serious young men;' and that with a little knot of these-highly gifted and of unquestionable moral character, though far gone in Calvinistic error -Herbert had associated himself, not only during his short intervals of relaxation, but in theological studies and religious exercises, the fruit of which intercourse had been to unsettle and perplex his mind, exciting in it doubts and scruples, not only on doctrinal points, but respecting the justifiableness of entering upon the ministry with any contingent views of temporal advantage -the presentation to the small living of Merivale having been promised to Herbert by the relation in whose gift it was, after his decision on taking holy orders, and it was in fact held for him by our friend Mr Wilmot until such time as he should be qualified to take upon himself the sacred responsibility. Except the small estate of Merivale, I had little in my power to bequeath to my adopted sonwhose trifling patrimonial inheritance would have been insufficient to enable him to reside in that endeared home, without the additional income of the living in question. The unsolicited and unexpected promise had been accepted by my dear Herbert with ardent gratitude, for on the prospect so extended to him, how many and how delightful were the paths of spiritual and temporal usefulness that would lay before him. With a heart and head full of these pure hopes and pious views, he went to college. Alas! that the intervention of mistaken zeal should have disturbed the moral calm based on so irreproachable a purpose.

"It was with considerable uneasiness that I became gradually aware of the mischief fermenting in his ardent and enthusiastic mind, and I lost no time in communicating to Mr Wilmot the result of my observations. He entered warmly into my fears and feelings, and from that time lost no opportunity of being

alone with his late pupil, and of engaging him in confidential discussion of his newly conceived doubts and conscientious scruples. Herbert had always felt great attachment, and entertained high respect for his venerable instructor, knowing him to be indeed the faithful and zealous servant of his Heavenly Master. This renewed intercourse between tutor and pupil was therefore not uninfluential with the latter, and I parted with him, on his return to Cambridge, with sanguine hope that the happier frame of mind and fixedness of purpose he had latterly regained, would not again be disturbed or shaken by the wild and speculative theories of that 'zeal without experience' so generally tending towards dangerous errorfanaticism, or infidelity.

"Too soon, however, the constrained and ambiguous style of his letters gave me reason to fear that he was relapsing into his former state of disquietude, and my reawakened anxiety was cruelly aggravated by the report of two young cantabs, with whom I found myself in company at the house of a neighbouring gentleman. They spoke in terms of high respect and encomium of the moral and intellectual qualities of my dear Herbert, but lamented that, at his first entrance in the university, he had been thrown into the society of a set of men, who, however distinguished by their abilities, and sincere in their religious profession, were far gone in sectarian errors, and justly amenable to the charge of pharasaical presumption in their outward assumption of peculiar sanctity and seriousness, and of a conventional language, by which, as by a sort of freemasonry, they distinguished the individuals of their party.

"With the most talented and distinguished of these young aspirants, a Mr Melcomb, Herbert had linked himself in intimate friendship; and I heard with dismay, that the former, having in his own case given up high expectations in the church, with the purpose of devoting himself to missionary labours in far distant lands, was using his powerful influence with my nephew to detach him from the rationally pious views with which he had hitherto

looked forward to ordination, and associate him in his own projected wanderings.

"In aggravation of this disquieting intelligence, I gathered from the reluctant avowals of my young informants, that many persons of Herbert's general acquaintance, themselves included, had been of late struck by his personal alteration, and the strong indications of over excitement and feverish illness which had been for some time past apparent in him.

"You may better imagine than I can describe the thoughts and feelings with which I returned to my home that night; and penned before I slept (or rather before I sought my sleepless bed) a note to the good man, so affectionately interest ed for Herbert, to whom I had resorted in my former perplexity, requesting the favour of an early visit from him the day ensuing. He found me almost incapable, from agitation, of explaining to him my renewed cause for anxiety, so fear fully had it been increased by the contents of a letter, brought by that morning's post. A few straggling lines in an unsteady hand, which I could scarcely recognise as that of my poor Herbert, informed me, with affectionate precaution, that he was ill very ill, certainly-but he hoped not dangerously-and that at all events-if-even- And then broke off abruptly the almost illegible scrawl, to which Mr L., his friendly tutor, had subjoined the distressing information that my poor nephew's affectionate endeavour to communicate the tidings of his illness to me in his own handwriting, had been arrested, by a violent paroxysm of the disease, which had assumed the formidable character of brain fever. Under such circumstances, there needed not the cautiously worded intimation with which Mr L.'s postscript concluded to make me fully aware of my poor Herbert's imminent danger, or to decide me on setting out for Cambridge within two hours from the receipt of that terrible letter, accompanied by Mr Wilmot, who hastily made his arrangements for the jour

ney.

"I will not attempt to describe the feelings with which I drew near the place and moment which were to

end my dread uncertainty as to the one great question 'life or death?" That answered by the blessed words 'He still lives'-I could gather little more to cheer or to encourage me in the after report of the medical men who were in attendance on my poor sufferer. For more than ten agonizing days he struggled on through alternate stages of fierce delirium and death-like stupor. But the crisis was favourable. The fever was at length subdued, and though reduced to a state of more than infant weakness, my Herbert was pronounced out of actual danger, and his ultimate restoration to be mainly dependent on the care which should be taken, during a tedious convalescence, to keep him in a state of perfect tranquillity of mind and body. Immediately on our arrival at Cambridge, he had been removed, by consent of his physician, to a private lodging, and I was the more thankful for this arrangement, when it became a point of the first importance to guard him from the slightest agitation-and from every sight or sound, object or person, in the remotest degree likely to produce it. Among the many and frequent enquiries for my poor Herbert, his friend Mr Melcomb was the most constant, and certainly not the least anxiously interested. During the season of pressing and imminent danger, I had had neither thought nor moment to spare from the one engrossing object; but when the dread crisis had terminated in a favourable change, I saw Mr Melcomb, and though in several subsequent interviews with him I found myself, in spite of preconceived opinion, irresistibly charmed by his amiable and engaging manners, characterised though they were by the conventional language of his party; and though I did full justice to his purity of intention, intellectual powers, and sincere affection for my nephew, I felt but the more confirmed in my determination to prevent if possible all intercourse between him and Herbert, during the interval that must still elapse before the latter should have regained sufficient strength to warrant his removal to Merivale.

"As my nephew slowly revived to consciousness of his late danger and his actual state, and began to

make faint enquiries for those who he was well assured had been kindly concerned about him, I did not feel myself justified in with holding from him the knowledge, that his friend Mr Melcomb had been among the most anxious of the daily enquirers. Reluctantly I pronounced the name-and fearfully awaited the remark or request it might call forth. But it was heard in silence-only with a deep sigh, and an almost imperceptible motion of the lips and after a moment, the invalid half turned round upon his pillow, softly murmuring to himself, Poor Melcomb! it is all over now;' and then, as if exhausted by this feeble effort, he closed his eyes, and spoke no more for hours.

Neither, for many days, did he renew the subject, which I by no means felt it incumbent on me to remind him of, though Mr Melcomb began to plead with increased urgency for admittance to his friend's sick chamber.

"Our medical advisers, however, (having necessarily been made aware of Herbert's peculiar circumstances,) declared unhesitatingly, their opinion that strong and long continued over-excitement and agitation of mind, acting on a most excitable constitution, had brought on the so nearly fatal crisis; and that his life and reason still hung in such uneven balance, that the slightest jar might be partially or wholly fatal. 'Let him,' they said, 'see no one but yourself, and his worthy old tutor who has shared your anxious task, during the short remainder of his present stay at Cambridge-and the moment he can be moved with safety, take him back with you to the home of his youth, and keep him there-far from this place and from his late associates-until he shall at least have recovered as much physical health as may be accompanied, we will hope, by a moral tone less morbidly liable than at present to injurious influence.'

"The first part of this friendly advice I cautiously communicated to the dear patient, and unspeakably was my mind relieved when he calmly replied, after a pause of deep reflection-Be it so, my dear aunt. Tell this to Melcomb. Tell him it may be better we should NOT MEET NOW. Hereafter-if my life should

be prolonged—but not now—not yet. Tell him he shall hear from me when I can guide a pen firmly, and write calmly-and till then, and for ever-God bless him!'

"We were at length permitted to depart, and by short and slow stages our dear charge was safely conveyed to Merivale, and I had the comfort of seeing him once more established in our pleasant home. Still so languid and enfeebled as to require support in his few steps from the carriage to the hall door, he stopt on the familiar threshold, and looked about him with an expression so peculiar, so made up of quiet glad

ness

and gratitude, and other thoughts, not of this world surely, that it struck to my heart a shuddering consciousness of the feelings and forebodings then passing in his, and the words with which I would have welcomed him home again, died inaudible on my lips.

"So tedious and almost imperceptible was his progress towards recovery, that I should scarcely have ascertained it, but by comparison of its weekly stages; from his first removal from the couch in his own dressing room to that in my boudoir for a few afternoon hours, to his re-establishment at his favourite bay window in the library and general resumption of all his in-door habits. The regaining of farther liberty was still, we saw, to be a work of time, and the patient invalid murmured not that his enjoyment of out-door exercise was long restricted to carriage airings and a few turns at intervals on the broad gravel walk under our south windows.

"As the summer advanced, however-the last year's summer-his amendment more visibly progressed, and I should have looked forward with sanguine expectation to his perfect restoration, but for a mysterious something-an indefinable change in his general manner-in the expression of his countenance, and even in the tone of his voicewhich filled me with vague uneasiness, and fears I scarcely dared to analyze.

"Mild and thoughtful had been at all times my Herbert's character, but innocently cheerful too, and enthusiastically ardent in all his favourite pursuits and it had been his delight especially to talk over with

me (his confidant from childhood) all his hopes of happiness and use fulness in that station of life which had been so entirely the selection of his heart and judgment. From the period of our return home he never on any occasion reverted to the subject, or made allusion to his earthly future; and if any observation in reference to it was made by myself or others, he either eluded it by some slight vague answer, or let it pass unnoticed, but by the shade of deeper seriousness which at such times fell on his thoughtful brow, and by a faint and sickly smile I now and then detected on his pale lips-perceptible perhaps to myself only, but how keen is the eye of anxious tenderness! Neither did he voluntarily take part in any general conversational topics or discussion of passing events, whether of local or national interest. He seemed like one who, having no part to play on life's busy stage, desired as much as possible to shut out even its distant murmurs, and to take no cognisance of chance or change,' beyond the circle of his own home and the world of his own heart. Within that small circle he had become more and more endeared to every living being during the season of his protracted feebleness and dependence; so beautiful and touching was his heavenly sweetness of temper, his unalterable patience and his affectionate gratitude for every little attention or required service rendered to him by myself, his kind old tutor, or the faithful servants who had lived with me before his birth, and had taken their part in the care of himself and his little sister, when the infant orphans were brought from the house of mourning and death to the shelter of my roof, in prattling unconsciousness of their irreparable loss.

"For each and every one of those humble friends Herbert had ever a kind word or smile, a grateful expression, or some familiar question when they approached him, even with that officiousness of overanxiety so trying to irritable invalids; and for my sake, he would at all times throw aside his book, or rouse himself from his deepest abstractions -but it was evident he made the effort for my sake only, and that the solitary musings to which he had

been ever addicted were become the cherished and abiding habit of his mind.

"Often have I sat for hours, ostensibly occupied with my book or needlework, but in reality watching the varying expression of his countenance, as he lay back in his large reading-chair in the library window an open volume in his hands, but his eyes seldom directed to its pages, or apparently fixed on any external object, except that, when they sometimes wandered to the scene without, a moist film would gather over the dark blue orbs, and, after closing them for a few moments, their long black lashes would be fringed with tears-ah! with what feelings have I watched that eloquent silencehow fearfully have I conjectured the thoughts with which he had been contemplating the scene of his earliest pleasures. Had they been occupied solely with associations of the past? the memory of his sweet sister and her foreign grave? or mingled with such feelings as cause the eye to linger fondly on objects it shall not long behold? I shrank from my own thoughts; and, after all, I believed, I hoped, he was doing well, and no dreaded, well-known symptom had yet warned me of his real danger. But this poor hope, this almost wilful delusion, was soon to be withdrawn, and for ever. As yet, I had not acquired courage closely to question Herbert's skilful and attentive medical adviser. But his visits, I observed, were longer and more frequent; and methought there was a shade of deeper seriousness upon his countenance after those lengthened conferences. I will speak to him-I will question him to-morrow' was, day after day, my self-engagement; but, after all, there can be no serious alteration for the worse. He does not lose strength-he has no cough,' was the miserable sophistry with which, from day to day, I still protracted my enquiry.

"Since our return home from Cambridge, Herbert had received two letters from his friend Mr Melcomb. He had read, and re-read them, with evidently deep interest; for during the perusal the faint colour of his cheek would come and go, and he would sigh and shake his head, murmuring to himself inau