affection could not but produce a strong emotion in the mind of Dorothea; and while she pressed Paul to her bosom, they both mingled their tears together, which now flowed faster than ever. How long they might have remained in this interesting situation it is impossible to say; but at this instant two female neighbours, whom the news of Ezekiel's sudden death had reached, entered the room, to administer what comfort they could, and to perform all those little offices which we so naturally expect from our friends when sickness or death falls upon any of our family. They immediately removed her and Paul from the room which contained the dead body, and afterwards proceeded to perform such ceremonies upon it as are usually performed previously to inhumation.

"is

"walks

"Ill news," says Massinger, swallow-winged," while good upon crutches ;" and so it was now; for Mr. Barnaby and his illustrious.

nephew had scarcely sat down to breakfast, when one of the scholars ran breathless into the parlour to inform him that Mr. Plaintive was dead. In a small village, the death of an individual is an event of no less importance, than the demise of a king is to a whole nation : but Mr. Barnaby was incredulous on this occasion: he could not believe, on the instant, that life was so frail; and it was not till after repeated interrogatories, to which the youth returned consistent and unvarying answers, that he began to think there might be some truth in it. Uncertainty, however, is a painful state; so he put on his hat, and put off his gown, and walked over to Ezekiel's house, where the whole was confirmed, to his utter consternation and to his great regret. He did not remain, however, to increase the number of comforters, but hastened back to his nephew with the melancholy tidings, who heard them with some emotion, and

being in a somewhat pensive mood he moralized upon the event with a great deal of eloquence, but the particular manner I never could ascertain. I have heard, indeed, that he dwelt with much pathos upon the dinner which he had missed.

The various thoughts which crowded upon the mind of Paul, after the first paroxysm of his grief had subsided, cannot be detailed, for they were numerous, obscure, and transitory. Sometimes he bewailed his loss; and at others he tried to persuade himself that death was the inevitable lot of man, and that his father's might prove, eventually, of no small import to himself: he could not, indeed, help feeling that one formidable barrier was removed which stood in his way towards greatness. Ezekiel's pertinacious rejection of all ideas which connected themselves with his son's literary progress had often weighed heavily upon his mind: and

though his tender and affectionate heart was far from rejoicing that this obstacle was thus removed, still the consciousness that it was so, would sometimes obtrude itself. Nor was he without other reflections, such as the pecuniary situation in which his mother might find herself, and the power she might have to accomplish his views, so far removed from the metropolis, the centre of exertion, patronage, and remuneration. But he committed to time, that midwife of events, all his hopes, and all his fears, resolving, in the interim, to pursue his own scheme of study, without which he knew that nothing could be attained.

Meanwhile, preparations were made for the funeral of Ezekiel. All that display of finery which the innocent vanity of Dorothea had prepared, was laid aside, to be supplied by suits of solemn black; in which sable garb, Paul, his mother, Sukey, Bob, and Scroggins appeared on

the day of interment. A numerous train of villagers followed the body to the grave, where it was deposited with rustic simplicity, and where it now rots as majestically as the carcase of any hero, monarch, or philosopher, whose resting-place the traveller still visits with adoration or abhorrence, with reverence or with pity. It being resolved that a wooden memorial should be erected over his ashes, to mark where they lay, to tell his name, his age, and death, Paul begged that an epitaph might be bestowed on him, to which his mother assenting, he proposed, being fresh from the perusal of the Vicar of Wakefield, the following line of Pope :

"An honest man's the noblest work of God."

This was
was accordingly executed to
his wish, and as the grave of Ezekiel
fronts the principal entrance to the

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