Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/307

 HAMILTON. 3O3 this place she transmitted the last pages of “Popular Essays on the Elementary Principles of the Human Mind,” the chief object of which i s , t o establish a s a fun damental principle, the opposition o f the selfish propensi ties t o the cultivation o f benevolence, and the attainment o f felicity. Suffering from i l l health, yet alive t o the most generous feelings, she, i n 1815, published a small volume, entitled, “Hints t o the Patrons and Directors o f Public Schools,” recommending a partial adoption o f the plan introduced i n Switzerland, b y Pestalozzi. Annexed t o the Hints i s a separate volume o n Questions, exhibiting the plan o f instruction t o b e adopted b y the teacher. I n 1818, she had sketched a novel, and planned many other works; yet, o n the reperusal, each was rejected. She had long borne the pains o f rheumatism and gout, with a degree o f cheerfulness, which astonished a l l who ap proached her: but the frail tenement that shrouded her radiant spirit, could not long withstand these repeated attacks; a nervous irritability was the consequence; and finally, a violent inflammation o f the eyes confined her t o a n apartment, from which light was excluded.” The pain she experienced was s o exquisite, that even conver sation was distressing her spirits began t o languish, her appetite failed, and her strength declined. She had re turned t o her comfortable home, but i t was again deemed advisable she should remove t o England; and, o n the 13th o f May, she was removed from her apartment t o the carriage which conveyed her for ever from the scene t o which she had s o long been attached, attended b y her affectionate sister: they proceeded b y easy stages. At first she seemed t o derive benefit from the change; but before their arrival a t Harrowgate, her increasing weakness, alarmed Mrs. Blake, and suggested the most gloomy fore bodings. During some weeks she lingered perfectly sen sible t o the progress o f decay; but supported b y piety and resignation, she sunk gently into the arms o f death a t Harrowgate, o n the 23rd o f July, 1816, i n the fifty-eighth year o f her age.