or feverishly, must have laid its gripe upon a human being before
it can overcome in him the natural clinging to life, and make him
deliberately turn his back upon 'the warm precincts of the cheerful
day.' No doubt it is the saddest of all sad ends; but I do not
forget that a certain Authority, the highest of all authorities,
said to all human beings, 'Judge not, that ye be not judged.' The
writer has, in the course of his duty, looked upon more than one
suicide's dead face; and the lines of Hood appeared to sketch the
fit feeling with which to do so:--

Owning her weakness,
Her evil behaviour;
And leaving, with meekness,
Her soul to her Saviour.

What I have just written recalls to me, by some link of association,
the words I once heard a simple old Scotch-woman utter by her son's
deathbed. He was a young man of twenty-two, a pious and good young
man, and I had seen him very often throughout his gradual decline.
Calling one morning, I found he was gone, and his mother begged me
to come and see his face once more; and standing for the last time
by him, I said (and I could say them honestly) some words of Christian
comfort to the poor old woman. I told her, in words far better than
any of my own, how the Best Friend of mankind had said, 'I am the
Resurrection and the Life: he that believeth in Me, though he were
dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me,
shall never die.' I remember well her answer. 'Aye,' said she, 'he
gaed away trusting in that; and he'll be sorely disappointed if he
doesna' find it so.' Let me venture to express my hope, that when
my readers and I pass within the veil, we may run the risk of