Page:Father's memoirs of his child.djvu/200

 the exhibition of individual life is not misplaced, it is difficult to arrange it with a proper attention to decorum. Yet were the fear of censure to deter those who, upon the best exercise of their discretion, think they have high instances of unknown merit to communicate, the world would lose many an instructive example, so that the page of biography must be left far too scanty, to supply materials for our researches into the economy of nature, or the condition of human life.

I have now performed the office of giving a full, and perhaps too detailed an account, both of this child's promise and performance, during his short life. It is time to enter on the more painful task, of relating the leading particulars, which occurred in the course of his last illness.

During the whole summer, up to the first of July, 1802, he had been in perfect health; and had been considered, by those who saw him but occasionally, and were therefore likely to make more accurate