me, and often with me, who will be very glad of his present. If it is left at my house, it will be transmitted safe to me. A recovery in my case, and at my age, is impossible; the kindest wish of my friends is Euthanasia! Living or dying, I shall always be Your &c. John Arbuthnot. This is the last letter you will ever receive from me; the last assurance I shall give you, on earth, of a sincere and steadfast friendship. But, when we meet again, I hope it will be in the heights of immortal love and ecstacy. Mine, perhaps, may be the first glad spirit to congratulate your safe arrival on the happy shores. Heaven can witness the sincerity of my concern for your happiness. Thither I have sent my ardent wishes, that you may be secured from the flattering delusions of the world; and that, after your pious example has been long a blessing to mankind, you may calmly resign your breath, and enter the confines of unmolested joy! I am now taking my farewell of you here it is a short adieu; for I die with full persuasion that we shall meet again! but O, in what elevation of happiness! in what enlargement of mind, and perfection of every faculty! What transporting reflections shall we make on *After the death of Mrs. Rowe, these letters were found in her cabinet she had directed them to be delivered, immediately after her decease, to the persons to whom they were addressed. the advantages of which we shall feel ourselves eternally possessed! To Him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, we shall ascribe immortal glory, dominion, and praise for ever. This is all my salvation, and all my hope. That name in whom the Gentiles trust, in whom all the families on earth are blessed, is now my glorious, my unfailing confidence: in His merits alone I expect to stand justified before infinite Purity and Justice. How poor were my hopes, if I depended on those works, which my own vanity, or the partiality of men, has called good; and which, if examined by Divine Purity, would prove, perhaps, but specious sins! The best actions of my life would be found defective, if brought to the test of that unblemished holiness in whose sight the Heavens are not clean. Where were my hopes, but for a Redeemer's merits and atonement! how desperate, how undone, my condition! With the utmost advantages I can boast, I should start back, and tremble, at the thoughts of appearing before the unblemished Majesty. What a dream is mortal life! What shadows are the objects of sense! All the glories of mortality, my beloved friend, will be nothing in your view, at the awful hour of death, when you must be separated from the whole creation, and enter on the borders of the immaterial world. May that Divine protection, whose care I implore, keep you steadfast in the faith of Christianity, and guide your steps in the strictest paths of virtue ! Adieu, my most dear friend, till we meet in the paradise of God! Elizabeth Rowe. My lord, LETTER II. To the earl of Orrery. There seems to be something presaging in the message that you desired me to deliver to your charming Henrietta*, when I should meet her gentle spirit in the blissful regions; which I believe will be very soon. I am now acting the last part of life; and composing myself to meet the universal Terror, with a fortitude becoming the principles of Christianity. It is only through the great Redeemer's merits and atonement, that I hope to pass undaunted through the fatal darkness. Before him death, the grisly tyrant, flies: He wipes the tears for ever from our eyes. All human greatness makes no figure in my present apprehension; every distinction vanishes, but that of virtue and real merit. It is this which gives a peculiar regard for such a character as yours; and makes me hope your example will not fall short of that of your illustrious ancestors. The approaches of death set the world in a true light; its brightest advantages appear no more than a dream, in that solemn period. The immortal mind, perhaps, will quit a cottage with less regret than it would leave the splendour of a palace; and the breathless dust sleep as quietly beneath the grassy turf, as under the parade of a costly monument. These are insignificant circumstances to a spirit doomed to an endless duration of misery or of bliss. It is this important The countess of Orrery, concern, my lord, that has induced me to spend my time in a peaceful retirement, rather than to waste it in a train of thoughtless amusements. My mind is grown familiar with the solemnity of dying; and death seems to advance, not as an inflexible tyrant, but as the peace→ ful messenger of liberty and happiness. May I make my exit in that elate manner which these charming lines of Mr. Pope describe ! "The world recedes, it disappears; Heav'n opens on my eyes; my ears With sounds seraphic ring: Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly! O death! where is thy sting?" The nearer I am approaching to immortality, the more extensive and enlarged I find the principles of amity and good-will in my soul; hence arise the most sincere wishes for your happiness, and that of the charming pledges your lovely Henrietta left. O! my lord, if you would discharge the sacred trust, keep them under your own inspection. This letter will not reach you, my lord, before I am past the ceremony of subscribing myself, Your humble servant, Elizabeth Rowe. Sir, LETTER III. To Mr. James Theobald. The converse I have had with you has been very short; but I hope the friendship begun by it, will be transmitted to the regions of perfect amity and blissə |