rsation with him on the Thursday of last week, never
enjoyed an interview more, or remembers him in a more genial mood.
On the Saturday forenoon another friend from Edinburgh found him in
the same happy frame. As was his wont when with an old friend with
whom he felt particularly at ease, he read or recited some favorite
passages, repeating, on this occasion, with great emphasis, that
noble prayer of John Knox,[1] which, he told his friend, it had
been his frequent custom to repeat privately during the days of the
Disruption. On the forenoon of Sunday last he worshipped in the
Free Church at Portobello; and in the evening read a little work
which had been put into his hands, penning that brief notice of it
which will be read with melancholy interest as his last
contribution to this journal. About ten o'clock on Monday morning
he took what with him was an altogether unusual step. He called on
Dr. Balfour, in Portobello, to consult him as to his state of
health. "On my asking," says Dr. Balfour, in a communication with
which we have been favored, "what was the matter with him, he
replied, 'My brain is giving way. I cannot put two thoughts
together to-day. I have had a dreadful night of it; I cannot face
another such. I was impressed with the idea that my Museum was
attacked by robbers, and that I had got up, put on my clothes, and
gone out with a loaded pistol to shoot them. Immediately after that
I became unconscious. How long that continued, I cannot say; but
when I awoke in the morning I was trembling all over, and quite
confused in my brain. On rising I felt as if a stiletto was
suddenly, and as quickly as an electric shock, passed through my
brain from front to back, and left a burning sensation on the top
of the brain just below the bone. So thoroughly convinced was I
that I must have been out through the night, that I examined my
trousers to see if they were wet or covered with mud, but could
find none.' He further said,--'I may state that I was somewhat
similarly affected through the night twice last week, and I
examined my trousers in the morning to see if I had been out. Still
the terrible sensations were not nearly so bad as they were last
night; and I may further inform you, that towards the end of last
week, while passing through the Excha