Page:Life of Daniel Dancer Esq..pdf/17

 satisfaction. Finding himself a little better, his attachment to the only thing he respected more than that lady recurred, and that too with such violence, that, although his hand was scarcely able to perform its functions, he took hold of his will, which he had intended to have presented to her, and replaced it once more in his bosom.

Next morning, however, perceiving his end to be fist approaching, he actually confided this paper according to his original determination; and, having now resigned, as it were, all title to that adored wealth, which he considered as his "heart's blood," he soon gave up the ghost, and was buried in the churchyard of his parish (Harrow,) by his own particular desire.

Thus lived, and thus died, at the age of seventy-eight, on September 4, 1794, Daniel Dancer, a true disciple of the Elwes school, the rigours of which he practised to a far greater degree than even his master. In consequence of a very common mistake of the means for the end, he deprived himself not only of what are termed the pleasures, but even of the necessaries of life. At times, however, he would lament that he did not make a better use of his riches; and was once heard to regret that he had not, according to his original intentions, set up a whiskey, which, in his opinion, was the ne plus ultra of gen-