"I have been at Cambridge. The recognition of many old friends from all parts of England, has much interested me. Indeed, associations connected with former days, have quite overpowered me. The older I grow, the more acutely 1 feel every thing.

"Take care of too frequent intercourse with the world. I write with a heart full of love, but I must caution you. There is nothing more dangerous to young Christians than indiscriminate intercourse with persons of no religion. It is far more likely that we should receive evil, than impart good, in such society. I have experienced this too much myself on many occasions, not to feel it keenly. Prudence and prayer are then especially needful; for we may more easily conform to the world, than, bring the world to conform to us. Happy they who have the least to do with it, except in the way of absolute duty and necessity. I often reflect with gratitude on the blessing which God has given to the retired habits and education of my two boys, W—and H—, one in heaven and one still on earth. To their seclusion I ascribe their simplicity and happy ignorance of many evils. Premature acquaintance with the wickedness of the world— (and there is no knowing the world without coming in contact with its wickedness)-has ruined thousands of hopeful young men, and has multiplied the miseries of the hopeless.

"I long for our early morning readings. Latin, Greek, and Mathematics, are a very small and inferior part of learning, particularly for the Christian ministry. While heads are filling, hearts are withering. Give my affectionate love to dear; next to my own boys I do indeed love him. I long to see more of an unreserved and experimental communication between him and H. I have numberless feelings about their intercourse which I

do not utter, and yet I know not why; but this I know, that I have you all in my heart; but that heart will soon turn to dust. There is a better heart in heaven. I would have all my dear children enclosed in it.

"Give the children of the Sunday School a new subject, that they may search for texts to prove it. "Farewell, dearest F. I lament many things, but most of all that I am not worthy to be called

Your affectionate Father,

L. R."

Mr. R. was evidently ripening for heaven. The tenderness, the deep piety of his loving spirit, the weanedness of his heart from the world, and his earnest desire to transfuse his devout feelings unto the minds of all who were connected with him, discover an assimilation to a purer region, and might have prepared us to expect that his departure was not far distant. The documents to which he alludes, are contained in the following communication, which I commend to the serious and attentive perusal, both of young persons and their parents.

CHAPTER VII.

Here were two souls knit together as the soul of one man; what there is of present separation shall be but for a little while. Howe.

"MY VERY DEAR F.

"In compliance with your request, I send you the chief incidents of our brother's closing scene; his conversations with my dear father, and other members of his family, and a few of the letters which were written during that mournful period. You may rely on the accuracy of the whole. My father had intended to have published a memoir of Wilberforce, and with that view he desired me to make memoranda of what passed at the time. He told me more than once, that the blessing which seemed to attend the perusal of his little tracts, encouraged him to put on record the piety of his son; which he considered to be no less honourable to God, and consoling and strengthening to young Christians, than that of the Dairyman's Daughter, or the Young Cottager. He thought that Willy's training for eterntty might be read with equal advantge, and might assist both in imparting clear views of religion, and in relieving the mind from the fears and anxieties which often distress and harass young Christians in the prospect of death. To know that others have been perplexed with the same doubts, alarmed by the same fears, animated by the same hopes, comforted by the same

.

promises, and directed by the same precepts,' he used to say, 'demonstrate a holy identity in the influence of the gospel and the effects produced by it, and may comfort the trembling sinner, and confirm the most advanced believer.'

"There are a number of papers in my father's hand-writing, relating to my brother's character and dying hours, which are indeed so unconnected and unfinished, that scarcely any use can now be made of them; but they show how interesting a detail the memoir would have been in his hands. He would sit for hours in his study, perusing and adding to these fragments; but the excess of feeling and mental agitation, which the contemplation and reminiscence of the past never failed to renew, greatly impaired his health, and forced him to lay aside his purpose.

"In one of the papers alluded to, we found the following remarks in his own hand. 'I have never given up the design of writing his memoir, and every day's meditation has prepared me for it. But whenever I begin, my spirits sink, my eyes are full of tears, and I lay aside my papers to a more convenient season, when I may be able to write with more calmness. Alas! this is my weakness.'

"Wilberforce had always been my dear father's companion in his literary and philosophical pursuits. From his childhood his chief pleasures and recreations were in the study; and he used to retire to the museum to make experiments with the air-pump, or electrical machine, or read some book of science, while the other boys were engaged in their sports. As he advanced in years, he employed his leisure hours more especially in the study of mineralogy and geology. This congeniality of mind and pursuit contributed to form the strong attachment which subsisted between my father and Wilberforce, and indeed rendered the one almost an integral

part of the other. My dear father had a peculiar talent for connecting science with religion, and Wilberforce seemed more than his other children to afford him materials for successful cultivation.

"In my father's miscellaneous papers we find the following short notes, evidently written in reference to the projected memoir. Early intellectual conversation, great general reading, strong turn for reasoning and argument, deep and close investigation of philosophical questions, acquaintance with subjects of political economy, love of natural history, insects, mineralogy, geology, classics, mathematics. My wish and endeavour has been to cultivate philosophical pursuits in connection with religion, with my children, as recreations, instead of allowing and encouraging the trifling and often pernicious amusements of the world. I have found my plan answer in his case.'

"Our dear father has succeeded in making his home dear to all his children. Home was never talked of without emotion by any of them. They left it with regret. They returned to it with the fondest affection, and connected with it every endearing association. No patriot Israelite ever sang of the place of his nativity with more enthusiasm, "Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy." Our beloved parent's integrity and uniform consistency engaged our esteem, and the multiplied resources of innocent gratification which surrounded us, won our regard.

"As Wilberforce grew up, he was considered by the whole family as the one marked out to fill his father's place in the church, and to his relatives. He became an object of interest to all; and to none was he more endeared than to his loving parent, who clung to him with deeper affection each succeeding year.