the sovereign remedy; and even its greater length of days may be viewed as a pledge like that afforded by the birth of Him who was born of a virgin; a token of the completeness of redemption, since the restoration is most entire where the fall began.

XXIV.

Death from Sudden Derangement of Vital Parts.

"His spirit, with a bound,

Burst its encumbering clay :
His tent, at sunrise, on the ground,
A blackened ruin lay."

MONTGOMERY.

LIFE often closes through a sudden and entire derangement of the vital organs. There may have been a morbid preparation for such a blow; there may have been an internal decay beyond the scope of accurate observation, or, perhaps, of possible knowledge; but an unforeseen touch forces the fatal instant on, and almost in that instant death begins and ends.

Thus, many fall by the effusion of blood upon the brain, or by the rupture of vessels near the heart, or in other vital regions; and apoplexy or paralysis closes the career of a very large proportion of those who survive beyond the first years of decline towards age. The accumulation of blood upon the brain, when it is mighty enough to be the occasion of fatal apoplexy, is often extremely sudden, often absolutely instantaneous. Men have died thus, in moments when any thing rather than death was expected by their companions. Several great American advocates, Pinkney, Harper, Winder, Emmet, and Wells, sank in the midst of forensic efforts. Bishop Heber, returning from the services of the sanctuary,

exhausted with heat, went into a bath, and was found lifeless. The Empress The Empress Catharine the Second was smitten down in her private closet. Euler dropped to the ground while he was playing with his grandchildren; Bochart, while engaged in a discussion at the academy; Hermann and Sands while writing; and Clarke, a divine of Boston, and several other clergymen, in the midst of sermons. King David the First of Scotland, Sir Charles Bell, Bishop Jolly, and Dr. Chalmers, were found dead in their beds. Amongst those who have died of apoplexy are also enumerated the Popes Martin the Fifth and Innocent the Eighth, the Sultan Achmet the Third, Charles the Eighth of France, Charles the Second of England, John the Third of Portugal, Matthias Corvinus, two successive Dukes of Orleans, St. Francis de Sales, Sir Thomas Gresham, Lord Somers, Sir Peter Lely, Matthew Henry, Samuel Clarke, Vitringa, Spallanzani, Fracastorio, Mrs. Rowe, Garrick, Cheselden, the two Rousseaus, Marmontel, the gram marian Adam, the historian Belknap.

A stroke of paralysis surprised Archbishop Whitgift on his way to the council-chamber; and Archbishop Tillotson during divine service, which he would not interrupt: both lingered for two or three days, almost speechless. Those excellent prelates, Bramhall, Cumberland, and Horne, died also of paralysis; and so died the Emperor Henry the Fowler, Pope Pius the Sixth, Ben Jonson, Harrington, Hobbes, Lord King, Lord Heathfield, the painter Barry, William Hunter, Foote, Poussin, Richardson the novelist, Halley, Thomas War ton, Gilbert West, Smeaton, Cuvier, Sir Walter Scott, and John Quincy Adams. The original stroke, however, though sudden, has often been but the commencement of a weakness of years: thus, Bishop Jebb lived

ten years, a patient invalid and a valuable author. Henry the Fourth of England died of epilepsy; the same disease snatched away the youthful Buckminster.

Diseases of the heart are often fatal at last, by an instantaneous blow, though less often than is popularly imagined. King George the Second died in a moment, through the rupture of the right ventricle. The celebrated John Hunter was seized with a spasm of the heart, at a meeting of surgeons, and died almost instantly. Bishop Berkeley was stretched on a couch, and listening while a sermon was read: his daughter approached to give him a dish of tea, and found him already stiff. Doctor Arnold, without previous disease, awoke with a sharp pain in his chest, and at the end of two or three hours breathed his last, as his father had died before him. Lord George Bentinck died while walking to a neighbouring mansion to dinner. Bishop Griswold sank at the door of his assistant and successor. Of disease of the heart, too, but not suddenly, died the pure Bishop Ryder.

Amongst those who have passed out of this mortal life by almost instantaneous prostration from different causes, was the renowned Earl Godwin, who died while at dinner with his sovereign. In later times, the Earl of Dorset, at the council-board, died of dropsy on the brain. Diderot arose from table, and fell dead. Prince Potemkin, the favourite of the Russian Empress, alighted from his carriage under a tree, and there expired. The great Prince Eugene suddenly breathed his last in his bed, after retiring for the night. Bishop Fletcher was sitting in his chair smoking the tobacco, then just introduced into England, when, with an exclamation to his servant, he fell back and died within fifteen minutes. Heyne died while washing his hands in the morning.

Petrarch was found sitting in his chair dead, with his book before him.

Every man has within his own recollection some deaths like these, from the circle of his acquaintance. In early life, they are heard with a peculiar dread; and to some minds the thought of such an end is always alarming. So often, too, is it attended with distress to affectionate survivors, surpassing that of the usual shock, and so large a portion of mankind are unprepared for immediate departure, that the Church may well include in its prayers, a petition for deliverance from sudden death. But, apart from this distress of survivors, he who strives to watch from day to day, and from hour to hour, may come to an entire acquiescence in that manner of death appointed him, secure that even the most instantaneous stroke has its peculiar and evident alleviations.