more appreciation than it gets. The world will not find itself deceived by what is offered to it, as it often does. Besides, I think no truly good book, like no truly good man, finds its value in its own immediate age. Personally, my best hopes are set on the Future, and so they are for the book. I should like, if thou canst find time to read it leisurely, for thee to do so, and note down, and tell me, where there are any errors or want of clearness in the style, or want of nice connection in the paragraphs, etc. I know that a reviewer must read as he runs, and I wish to make the style clear even to him. I received a polite acknowledgment from Dr. Farrar, for the present of the volume. He knew by book something about the Huntingdonshire family, yet is not connected with it. I have the notices of Valdés in the Baptist Magazine, Saturday Review, Evangelical Magazine, British Quarterly, Spurgeon's Magazine, and briefly in the Athenæum, which I have not yet seen. The weather here, has had the breath of winter, with the face of summer, and wrings all our nerves, smiting and pinching. I have endured the changes as well or better than others.

"I have been very much-I may say, day and night, occupied not only with the common ills of the body, but with an overwhelming sense of fear and responsibility; without power to lift a hand to avert it, and without the Christian's reliance on God to carry me through it. How often have I sighed, in the sense, and sometimes in the words, of Job (ch. vi. ver. 8-13),

'Oh that I might have my request, and that God might hasten my expected end!'

When the finger of the Almighty touches me, oh, how little faith I find I have! Hence I do right not to talk much about Christian or religious things to others, as though I had already attained something in them."

CHAPTER VIII.

SUMMARY AND CLOSE OF LIFE.

"I would not be a leaf, to die
Without recording sorrow's sigh."

H. K. WHITE.

AMES HURNARD, a Colchester "Friend," who

JA

about this time paid a long visit to Mr. Wiffen, and kindly acted as his amanuensis, describes his host in lines which, though quaint, are not inapt to our present purpose :—

"I tried the ocean shore, I tried the city,
And then I tried the charms of rural life,
The guest of Wiffen, in his pleasant cottage
O'erlooking Woburn's noble ducal park.
The only man of letters in my lifetime

Who deemed me worth his notice and regard,

And sought me out in my obscurity;

A total stranger, patted me on the back,

Cheered me with praise, and offered me his friendship;

A heart-warm kindness never to be forgotten.

Profoundly learned in the history

Of the great Protestant movement in old Spain,
Three hundred years ago, which was stamped out
By the dread office of the Inquisition.

He brought to light their interdicted writers,
Juan de Valdés and his followers.

Printing again their works for modern use-
Not least the ALFABETO CHRISTIANO-
Which Valdés wrote for Giulia Gonzaga.
With the old Poet and philosopher

I held delightful converse day by day,
Roaming with him thro' Aspley's classic woods,
Listening unconsciously to dying words;

Or by his fireside, from his own dictation,

Penning each day his learned narrative,

Snatching it, as it were, from the grave's mouth,
For so he yielded to my warm request."

During a visit which I made to him at Aspley, at this time, I urged him to publish the facts which he had already collected, concerning his Christian heroes, and not to wait for greater fulness of information concerning all their works. He replied, that owing to the destruction effected at the time, when all expressions of Evangelical Truth were proscribed throughout Spain, the particulars of the sayings and doings, of these worthies, could only be discovered by slow careful research. He showed me numerous compartments made in his kind of escritoir in his book-room, on each of which, was placed an honoured name, from the illustrious roll; and everything that came to hand concerning each, was here duly deposited, to be brought forth as soon as the process could be deemed to be reasonably complete. I still remonstrated, and pleaded, but he dismissed my entreaties with the remark, that I was too much accustomed to the imperfections of current

"The Setting Sun." A Poem in seven books. By James Hurnard.

life, of which so much was properly perishable, to pronounce concerning work that was to be enduring. The pigeon-holes, with their contents, are the origin of the instructive notices, appended to the writings of each Author, in the "Bibliotheca Wiffeniana," the outcome of the enthusiasm, and efforts, of the Hermit of Aspley, or, as Don Luis styled him, "El Solitario de Monte-grato."

This was a work of great labour, and prosecuted with scrupulous accuracy. The result, is a Gallery of Portraits, of which any Nation might well be proud, autographs of men truly noble, learned, and heroic.

He declined very gradually in strength, during the winter of 1866-7. Friends would willingly have gathered around him, but he preferred seclusion, and at the end of March, 1867, the end came without observation. The obituary notice in the "Annual Monitor" for 1868, thus relates the closing scene:"It seems to have been his wish that he might 'slip away unobserved.' And this was the case. He was gone before most of his relatives and friends knew that he was ill. He does not appear to have spoken much during his last illness; but what little he said, implied his firm trust in the atoning sacrifice of our Lord and Saviour; and we believe that he has entered upon an eternal rest in Jesus. He peacefully departed

*

"Bibliotheca Wiffeniana," Spanish Reformers of two centuries, from 1520, their Lives and Writings, according to the late Benjamin B. Wiffen's plan, and with the use of his materials. Described by Ed. Boehmer, D.D., Ph.D., Ordinary Professor of the Romance Languages to the University of Strasburg. Trübner, 1874.