Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/15

Rh the tenderest anxiety, his protracted sufferings—his beloved companion, his nurse, his wife.

"From the same source the following particulars of the illness and death of this lamented man are derived:—

He always felt for others more than for himself; and the evidences of sorrow in those around him, which could not at all times be suppressed, appeared to affect him more than his own sufferings. Whenever he spoke of the probability of a fatal termination to his disease, it was in an indirect and covert manner, as 'You must do so and so when I am absent,' or 'when I am asleep.' He surrendered not up one faculty of his soul but with his last breath. He saw death in every step of his approach, and viewed him as a messenger that brought with him no terrors. He frequently expressed his resignation, but his resignation was not produced by apathy or pain; for while he bowed with submission to the divine will, he felt, with the keenest sensibility, his separation from those who made this world but too clear to him. Towards the last, he spoke of death without disguise, and appeared to wish to prepare his friends for the event, which he felt to be approaching. A few days previous to his change, sitting up in the bed, he fixed his eyes on the sky, and desired not to be spoken to until he first spoke. In this position, and with a serene countenance, he continued for some minutes, and then said to his wife, 'When I desired you not to speak to me, I had the most transporting and sublime feelings I ever experienced. I wanted to enjoy them, and know how long they would last;' concluding with requesting her to remember the circumstance.