WM. WORDSWORTH.

* * * * *

When you see Mr. Cottle, pray remember us most affectionately to him,
with respectful regards to his sister.[221]

151. _Illness and Death of a Servant at Rydal Mount_.

Our anxieties are over, and our sorrow is not without heartfelt, I may
say heavenly, consolation. Dear, and good, and faithful, and dutiful
Jane breathed her last about twelve o'clock last night. The doctor had
seen her at noon; he found her much weaker. She said to him, 'I cannot
stand now,' but he gave us no reason to believe her end was so very
near. You shall hear all particulars when we are permitted to meet,
which God grant may be soon. Nothing could be more gentle than her
departure.

Yesterday Mary read to her in my presence some chapters from the New
Testament, and her faculties were as clear as any one's in perfect
health, and so they have ever been to the last.[222]

[220] [Note by Mr. Peace.] At Rydal Mount in 1838. Ephesians v. 20. 'My
favourite text,' said he.

[221] _Memoirs_, ii. 435-6.

[222] _Ibid._ ii. 501-2.

152. _Humility_.

Writing to a friend, he says: 'I feel myself in so many respects
unworthy of your love, and too likely to become more so.' (This was in
1844.) 'Worldly-minded I am not; on the contrary, my wish to benefit
those within my humble sphere strengthens seemingly in exact proportion
to my inability to realise those wishes. What I lament most is, that the
spirituality of my nature does not expand and rise the nearer I
approach the grave, as yours does, and as it fares with my beloved
partner. The pleasure which I derive from God's works in His visible
creation is not with me, I think, impaired, but reading does not
interest me as it used to do, and I feel that I am becoming daily a less
instructive companion to others. Excuse this egotism. I feel it
necessary to your understanding what I am, and how little you would gain
by habitual intercourse with me, however greatly I might benefit from
intercourse with you.'[223]

153. _Hopefulness_.

Writing to a friend at a time of public excitement, he thus speaks:
'After all (as an excellent Bishop of the Scotch Church said to a
friendly correspondent of mine), "Be of good heart; the affairs of the
world will be conducted as heretofore,--by the foolishness of man and
the wisdom of God."'[224]

[223] _Memoirs_, ii. 502-3.

[224] _Ibid._ ii. 503.

III. CONVERSATIONS AND PERSONAL