He rose, and met me with his usual kindness.  When I gave him the good accounts I had had from his physician, “I am foolish enough,” said he, “to rely but little, in this instance, upon physic:  my presentiment may be false; but I think I feel myself approaching to my end, by steps so easy, that they woo me to approach it.

“There is a certain dignity in retiring from life at a time, when the infirmities of age have not sapped our faculties.  This world, my dear Charles, was a scene in which I never much delighted.  I was not formed for the bustle of the busy, nor the dissipation of the gay; a thousand things occurred, where I blushed for the impropriety of my conduct when I thought on the world, though my reason told me I should have blushed to have done otherwise.—­It was a scene of dissimulation, of restraint, of disappointment.  I leave it to enter on that state which I have learned to believe is replete with the genuine happiness attendant upon virtue.  I look back on the tenor of my life, with the consciousness of few great offences to account for.  There are blemishes, I confess, which deform in some degree the picture.  But I know the benignity of the Supreme Being, and rejoice at the thoughts of its exertion in my favour.  My mind expands at the thought I shall enter into the society of the blessed, wise as angels, with the simplicity of children.”  He had by this time clasped my hand, and found it wet by a tear which had just fallen upon it.—­His eye began to moisten too—­we sat for some time silent.—­At last, with an attempt to a look of more composure, “There are some remembrances,” said Harley, “which rise involuntary on my heart, and make me almost wish to live.  I have been blessed with a few friends, who redeem my opinion of mankind.  I recollect, with the tenderest emotion, the scenes of pleasure I have passed among them; but we shall meet again, my friend, never to be separated.  There are some feelings which perhaps are too tender to be suffered by the world.—­The world is in general selfish, interested, and unthinking, and throws the imputation of romance or melancholy on every temper more susceptible than its own.  I cannot think but in those regions which I contemplate, if there is any thing of mortality left about us, that these feelings will subsist;- -they are called,—­perhaps they are—­weaknesses here;—­but there may be some better modifications of them in heaven, which may deserve the name of virtues.”  He sighed as he spoke these last words.  He had scarcely finished them, when the door opened, and his aunt appeared, leading in Miss Walton.  “My dear,” said she, “here is Miss Walton, who has been so kind as to come and inquire for you herself.”  I could observe a transient glow upon his face.  He rose from his seat—­“If to know Miss Walton’s goodness,” said he, “be a title to deserve it, I have some claim.”  She begged him to resume his seat, and placed herself on the sofa beside him.  I took my leave.