made him and loves him is always deferred. It is, therefore, Death
alone that can suddenly make man to know himself. He tells the
proud and insolent that they are but abjects, and humbles them at
the instant; makes them cry, complain and repent; yea, even to
hate their fore-passed happiness.

"He takes account of the rich, and proves him a beggar; a naked
beggar which hath interest in nothing but in the gravel that fills
his mouth. He holds a glass before the eyes of the most beautiful
and makes them see therein their deformity and rottenness, and
they acknowledge it.

"O eloquent, just and mighty Death! whom none could advise, thou
hast persuaded; what none have dared thou hast done; and whom all
the world have flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and
despised; thou hast drawn together all the far-stretched
greatness, all the pride, cruelty and ambition of man, and covered
it all over with these two narrow words--HIC JACET."

Sir Walter Ralegh was born only a few miles down below Ottery St.
Mary, in the same beautiful valley from which you and I, Antony, and
the poet have come. The peal of bells in the old church tower at
Otterton was given by him to the parish; and when "the lin lan lone of
evening-bells" floats across between the hills that guard the river Otter,
it should fall upon our ears as an echo of the melody that strikes upon
our hearts in Ralegh's words.

Your loving old
G.P.