DEATH OF LADY PATTESON.

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native county-she yet cast not one longing, lingering look behind, when called to quit all and go to the Saviour. So strong was her wish to depart and be with Christ, that she even was not diverted from it by her tender love for her husband and children-which to me, who know her heart toward them, is really marvellous. Great must have been her faith to realize, as she did, the unseen world.* Her death-bed reminds me of the last days of one-a very different person from her in many respects-my dear father. He had just the same strong, steadfast faiththe same longing to leave this world for a better, the same collectedness of mind during his last illness. He retained his intellectual powers to the last moment of his waking existence, but was in a coma for some hours before life was extinct. She was unconscious during the last two hours, and, for some time previously, it was only conjectured that she heard and joined in the prayers offered at her bedside.

VIII.

Religious Bigotry.

To the Rev. HENRY MOORE,† Eccleshall Vicarage, Staffordshire.

10, Chester Place, Dec. 1842.-We were amused by your account of the Puritanical Archdeacon. Religious bigotry is a dull fire-hot enough to roast an ox, but with no lambent, luminous flame shooting up from it. The bigots of one school condemn and, what is far worse, mutilate Shakespeare; those of another would, if they could, extinguish Milton. Thus the twin-tops of our Parnassus would be hidden in clouds for ever, had these men their way.

*This lamented relative, both cousin and sister-in-law, between whom and my mother there always existed a most tender affection, was the daughter of James Coleridge, Esq., of Heath's Court, Ottery St. Mary, and wife of the Hon Mr. Justice Patteson. She died in November, 1842, at Feniton Court, near Honiton.-E. C.

At present Archdeacon of Stafford.-E. C.

To Mrs. HENRY M. JONES, Hampstead.

December, 1842.-I try to think of that better abode in which we may meet each other, free from those ills which flesh is heir to. We have a special need to look and long for the time when we may be clothed upon " with our house which is from heaven;" for in this tabernacle we do indeed groan, "being burdened." Bodily weakness and disorder have been the great (and only) drawbacks, ever since we met twenty years ago, to our happiness in each other. It will seem chimerical to you that I have not yet abandoned all hope. But this faint hope, which perhaps, however, is stronger than I imagine, does not render me unprepared for what all around me expect. The Lord has given; and when He takes away, I can resign him to his Father in heaven; and looking in that direction in which he will have gone, I shall be able to have that peace and comfort which in no shape then will the world be able to give me.

To-day I attended the Holy Communion. To be away so long from my beloved husband was a great trial to me (of course I did not attend the morning service); but I knew he greatly wished it, and I made an effort to satisfy him. It requires no great preparation for one who leaves the room of severe sickness where all things point to a spiritual world-partly here around us, partly to come.

X.

Resignation.

To the Hon. Mr. JUSTICE COLERIDGE,* 4 Montague Place, London. January, 1843.-I now feel quite happy, or, at least, satisfied. Could I arrest his progress to a better sphere of existence by a prayer, I would not utter it. When I once

*My father's elder brother, now Right Honble. Sir John T. Coleridge, Member of the Privy Council.-E. C.

HER HUSBAND'S ILLNESS.

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know that it is God's will, I can feel that it is right, even if there were no such definite assurances of rest and felicity beyond this world. I cannot be too thankful to God, so far as my own best interests are concerned, that He is thus removing from earth to heaven my greatest treasure, while I have strength and probably time to benefit by the measure, and learn to look habitually above; which now will not be the spirit against the flesh, but both pulling one way, for the heart will follow the treasure. Thus graciously does the Blessed Jesus condescend to our infirmities, by earthly things leading us to heavenly ones.

K

CHAPTER XI.

LETTERS TO HER SON, HER ELDEST BROTHER, MRS. J. STANGER, HON. MR. JUSTICE COLERIDGE, REV. HENRY MOORE, EDWARD QUILLINAN, ESQ., MRS. THOMAS FARRER, MRS. H. M. JONES: 1843 (continued).

January 26th, 1843.-My dear Boy,-My most beloved and honoured husband, your excellent father, is no more in this world, but I humbly trust in a far better. May we all go where he is, prepared to meet him as he would have us! God bless you! Live as your beloved father would have you live. Put your trust in God, and think of heaven, as he would wish you.

May we all meet above! May we all join with him the Communion of Saints, and be for ever with the Blessed Jesus! Your good Uncle James was with me at the last.

I make an effort to write to you, my dear boy, from beside the remains of the dear, blessed, departed one. For you alone could I do this; but it is due to his son, our child.Your loving mother,

SARA COLERIDGE.

II.

Her Husband's Death-First meeting with him at Highgate. To Mrs. GILLMAN.

February, 1843.-My dearest Mrs. Gillman,-You have ere now, I trust, received an announcement of my loss, of

* Written by my mother to my brother at Eton, on the day of my father's death.-E. C.

which I cannot now speak. My sorrow is not greater than I can bear, for God has mercifully fitted it to my strength. While I was losing my great earthly happiness, I was gradually enabled to see heaven more and more clearly, to be content to part with earthly happiness, and to receive, as a more than substitute, a stronger sense of that which is permanent. I should have deferred writing thus to you, dear friend, till I was stronger; but I think it right to tell you that, at my strong desire, the remains of my beloved husband are to be deposited in Highgate Churchyard, in the same precinct with those of my revered father.

It was at Highgate, at your house, that I first saw my beloved Henry.* Since then, now twenty years ago, no two beings could be more intimately united in heart and thoughts than we have been, or could have been more intermingled with each other in daily and hourly life. He concerned himself in all my feminine domestic occupations, and admitted me into close intercourse with him in all his higher spiritual and intellectual life. It has pleased God to dissolve this close tie, to cut it gradually and painfully asunder, and yet, till the last fatal stroke, to draw it even closer in some respects than before.-God bless you, my dear friend. I am ever your truly affectionate and respectful

SARA COLERIDGE.

*My father, who was then living in London, used to walk up to Highgate two or three times a week, attracted thither by the fascination of that wonderful discourse of which he has left so valuable a record in the "Table Talk." It was on one of these occasions, during the winter of 1822–23, that he was first introduced to his "Cousin Sara," who was on a visit to her father at Mr. Gillman's; and his impressions on seeing the fair girl, "dressed all in white, and reclining upon a sofa" (for she was just recovering from an illness), were afterwards confided to his sister, Lady Patteson.-E. C.