yet the
air was strongly electric; for the bells of an electric machine at that
place rang repeatedly, and fierce sparks were discharged.

REV. GILBERT WHITE.

* * * * *

CHARACTER OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.

About half-past one P.M. on the 21st of September, 1832, Sir Walter
Scott breathed his last, in the presence of all his children. It was
a beautiful day--so warm, that every window was wide open--and so
perfectly still, that the sound of all others most delicious to his ear,
the gentle ripple of the Tweed over its pebbles, was distinctly audible
as we knelt around the bed, and his eldest son kissed and closed his
eyes. No sculptor ever modelled a more majestic image of repose.

It will, I presume, be allowed that no human character, which we have
the opportunity of studying with equal minuteness, had fewer faults
mixed up in its texture. The grand virtue of fortitude, the basis of all
others, was never displayed in higher perfection than in him; and
it was, as perhaps true courage always is, combined with an equally
admirable spirit of kindness and humanity. His pride, if we must call it
so, undebased by the least tincture of mere vanity, was intertwined with
a most exquisite charity, and was not inconsistent with true humility.
If ever the principle of kindliness was incarnated in a mere man, it
was in him; and real kindliness can never be but modest. In the social
relations of life, where men are most effectually tried, no spot can be
detected in him. He was a patient, dutiful, reverent son; a generous,
compassionate, tender husband; an honest, careful, and most affectionate
father. Never was a more virtuous or a happier fireside than his. The
influence of his mighty genius shadowed it imperceptibly; his calm good
sense, and his angelic sweetness of heart and temper, regulated and
softened a strict but paternal discipline. His children, as they grew
up, understood by degrees the high privilege of their birth; but the
profoundest sense of his greatness never disturbed their confidence in
his goodness. The buoyant play of his spirits made him sit young among
the young; parent and son seemed to live in brotherhood together;
and the chivalry of his imagination threw a certain air of courteous
gallantry into his relations with his daughters, which gave a very
peculiar grace to the fondness of their intercourse.

Perhaps the most to