son did not like, but
which was too small to take notice of.

He lived until about twelve months ago, when he was found dead in his bed
on the morning after having written the following letter to his son:--

"Dear Ernest,--I've nothing particular to write about, but your letter
has been lying for some days in the limbo of unanswered letters, to
wit my pocket, and it's time it was answered.

"I keep wonderfully well and am able to walk my five or six miles with
comfort, but at my age there's no knowing how long it will last, and
time flies quickly. I have been busy potting plants all the morning,
but this afternoon is wet.

"What is this horrid Government going to do with Ireland? I don't
exactly wish they'd blow up Mr Gladstone, but if a mad bull would
chivy him there, and he would never come back any more, I should not
be sorry. Lord Hartington is not exactly the man I should like to set
in his place, but he would be immeasurably better than Gladstone.

"I miss your sister Charlotte more than I can express. She kept my
household accounts, and I could pour out to her all little worries,
and now that Joey is married too, I don't know what I should do if one
or other of them did not come sometimes and take care of me. My only
comfort is that Charlotte will make her husband happy, and that he is
as nearly worthy of her as a husband can well be.--Believe me, Your
affectionate father,

"THEOBALD PONTIFEX."

I may say in passing that though Theobald speaks of Charlotte's marriage
as though it were recent, it had really taken place some six years
previously, she being then about thirty-eight years old, and her husband
about seven years younger.

There was no doubt that Theobald passed peacefully away during his sleep.
Can a man who died thus be said to have died at all? He has presented
the phenomena of death to other people, but in respect of himself he has
not only not died, but has not even thought that he was going to die.
This is not more than half dying, but then neither was his life more than
half living. He presented so many of the phenomena of living that I
suppose on the whole it would be less trouble to think of him as having
been alive than as never having been born at all, but this is only
possible because association does not stick to the strict letter of its
bond.

This, however, was not the general verdict concerning him, and the
gen