THE unhappy news I have just received from you equally surprises and afflicts me.* I have lost a person I loved very much, and have been used to From my infancy; but am much more concerned For your loss, the circumstances of which I forbear o dwell upon, as you must be too sensible of them The death of his aunt, Mrs. Mary Antrobus, who died he 5th of November, and was buried in a vault in Stoke hurch-yard near the chancel door, in which also his mother nd himself (according to the direction in his will) were terwards buried.-Mason. yourself; and will, I fear, more and more need a consolation that no one can give, except He who has preserved her to you so many years, and at last, when it was his pleasure, has taken her from us to himself: and perhaps, if we reflect upon what she felt in this life, we may look upon this as an instance of his goodness both to her, and to those that loved her. She might have languished many years before our eyes in a continual increase of pain, and totally helpless; she might have long wished to end her misery without being able to attain it; or perhaps even lost all sense, and yet continued to breathe; a sad spectacle to such as must have felt more for her than she could have done for herself. However you may deplore your own loss, yet think that she is at last easy and happy; and has now more occasion to pity us than we her. I hope, and beg, you will support yourself with that resignation we owe to Him, who gave us our being for our good, and who deprives us of it for the same reason. I would have come to you directly, but you do not say whether you desire I should or not; if you do, I beg I may know it, for there is nothing to hinder me, and I am in very good health. |