Page:Father's memoirs of his child.djvu/209

 in rendering desert sufficient to its own retribution in this life, were vindicated even in him, child as he was. The period during which he enjoyed the benefit of a sound body and animal spirits, was continually occupied in laying up mental treasures. The time was indeed short; but it lasted long enough to teach him the value of his own improvement, in the support it afforded him under the pressure of a severe illness, which he bore with exemplary patience and fortitude. Neither, in addition to this personal advantage, are we to overlook the record of unsophisticated philosophy, early attained and excellently applied, in so touching an instance of a mind, superior to the heaviest inflictions of pain. To compare his capacity of endurance with that of an adult under similar circumstances, would be extravagant; because the child has only to contend with his actual sufferings: the adult is attacked at once by the anxiety of the present, by the apprehension of the future, and often by the remorse of