For thee, Gentleman George, for thee, what conclusive valediction
remains? Alas! since we began the strange and mumming scene wherein
first thou went introduced, the grim foe hath knocked thrice at thy
gates; and now, as we write,--[In 1830]--thou art departed thence,--thou
art no more! A new lord presides to thine easy-chair, a new voice rings
from thy merry board,--thou art forgotten! thou art already, like these
pages, a tale that is told to a memory that retaineth not! Where are thy
quips and cranks; where thy stately coxcombries and thy regal gauds?
Thine house and thy pagoda, thy Gothic chimney and thy Chinese sign-
post,--these yet ask the concluding hand. Thy hand is cold; their
completion, and the enjoyment the completion yields, are for another!
Thou sowest, and thy follower reaps; thou buildest, thy successor holds;
thou plantest, and thine heir sits beneath the shadow of thy trees,--

"Neque harum, quas colis, arborum
Te, praeter invisas cupressos,
Ulla brevem dominum sequetur!"

["Nor will any of these trees thou didst cultivate follow thee,
the shortlived lord, save the hateful Cyprus."]

At this moment thy life,--for thou veert a Great Man to thine order, and
they have added thy biography to that of Abershaw and Sheppard,--thy life
is before us. What a homily in its events! Gayly didst thou laugh into
thy youth, and run through the courses of thy manhood. Wit sat at thy
table, and Genius was thy comrade. Beauty was thy handmaid; and
Frivolity played around thee,--a buffoon that thou didst ridicule, and
ridiculing enjoy! Who among us can look back to thy brilliant era, and
not sigh to think that the wonderful men who surrounded thee, and amidst
whom thou wert a centre and a nucleus, are for him but the things of