Page:The Story of the House of Cassell (book).djvu/202

 Sketch." In 1864 he published the first volume of "English Writers," an account of the writers before Chaucer, with an introductory sketch of the Four Periods of English Literature. This was presently divided into half-volumes, and followed, in 1867, by a third half-volume, which brought the story down to the invention of printing. As at this time large annual additions to the knowledge of our early literature were being made, Morley decided to suspend his magnum opus until the results should become available, and it was not until 1887 that he returned to his task, having, as he characteristically says, learnt in the twenty intervening years of study that he knew "less and less." The new work was so laid out as not to exceed twenty volumes, since "no labourer plans in his afternoon for a long day's work before nightfall." His hope was that, issued in crown octavo half-yearly volumes of about 350 pages each, the work would go on steadily to its close, but the end of his active and fruitful life came when he was engaged upon the eleventh volume. Just a fortnight before his death he had written to Mr. Hutchings, who had editorial charge of the work, a letter whimsically describing his state of health and his hopes for the future of his task:

" "1st May, 1894. ",—I wasn't equal to writing a letter, or I should have explained to you, long before this, the disappearance of copy and proofs of 'E. W.' I have had a very serious breakdown in health. A chill established acute inflammation of the left lung. My old friend diabetes, who generally wakes up for a bit of mischief when anything goes wrong, complicated that, tried for the weak places, and asserted himself also at large. He struck at the nerve force, reducing the strength of my legs to a child's, and leaving to my brains the animation of a suet pudding. Time, patience, and a good doctor, with a healthy, vigorous circulation and a sound digestion that has, in spite of bad usage, helped me over many a stile, are bringing me on day by day. Diabetes seems preparing to quiet down into its usual unaggressive state, and when it