they were such as the world might have heard with veneration: and
his heart, uncorrupted by its ways, was ever warm in the cause of
virtue and his friends.

He is now forgotten and gone! The last time I was at Silton Hall, I
saw his chair stand in its corner by the fire-side; there was an
additional cushion on it, and it was occupied by my young lady's
favourite lap dog. I drew near unperceived, and pinched its ears in
the bitterness of my soul; the creature howled, and ran to its
mistress. She did not suspect the author of its misfortune, but she
bewailed it in the most pathetic terms; and kissing its lips, laid
it gently on her lap, and covered it with a cambric handkerchief. I
sat in my old friend's seat; I heard the roar of mirth and gaiety
around me: poor Ben Silton! I gave thee a tear then: accept of
one cordial drop that falls to thy memory now.

"They should wear it off by travel."--Why, it is true, said I, that
will go far; but then it will often happen, that in the velocity of
a modern tour, and amidst the materials through which it is commonly
made, the friction is so violent, that not only the rust, but the
metal too, is lost in the progress.

"Give me leave to correct the expression of your metaphor," said Mr.
Silton: "that is not always rust which is acquired by the
inactivity of the body on which it preys; such, perhaps, is the case
with me, though indeed I was never cleared from my youth; but
(taking it in its first stage) it is rather an encrustation, which
nature has given for purposes of the greatest wisdom."

"You are right," I returned; "and sometimes, like certain precious