to vanish for ever?  Ah! you who are to survive this being like unto yourself whom heaven had given you for your support; that being who was every thing to you, and whose looks bid you an agonizing adieu, you will not refuse to place your hand upon an expiring heart, in order that its last palpitation may still speak to you when all other language has failed!  And shall we blame you, faithful pair, if you had desired that your mortal remains should be deposited in the same resting place?  Gracious God, awaken them together; or if one of them only has merited that favour, if only one of them must join the small number of the elect, let the other be informed of it; let the other perceive the light of angels at the moment when the fate of the happy shall be proclaimed, in order that he may possess one moment of joy before he sinks into eternal night.

“Ah! perhaps we wander when we endeavour to describe the last days of the man of sensibility, of the man who beholds death advance with hasty strides, who sees it ready to separate him from all the objects of his affection.

“He revives, and regains a momentary strength in order that his last words may serve for the instruction of his children.  He says to them—­’Do not be afraid to witness the approaching end of your father, of your old friend.—­It is in obedience to a law of nature that he quits before you, this earth which he entered first.  He teaches you courage, and nevertheless he leaves you with grief.  He would certainly have wished to assist you a little longer with his experience—­to walk a little longer side by side with you through all those perils with which your youth is surrounded; but life has no defence in the hour allotted for our descent to the tomb.  You will now live alone in the midst of a world from which I am about to disappear; may you reap in abundance the gifts which Providence has sown in it; but do not forget that this world itself is only a transient abode, and that you are destined for another more permanent one.  We shall perhaps see one another again; and in some other region, in the presence of my God, I shall offer for you as a sacrifice, my prayers and my tears!  Love then religion, which is so rich in promise! love religion, the last bond of union between fathers and their children, between death and life!—­Approach, that I may behold you once more!  May the benediction of a servant of God light on you!’—­He dies!—­O, heavenly angels, receive his soul, and leave us upon earth the remembrance of his actions, of his thoughts, and of his hopes!"[25]

The emotion of Oswald and Corinne had frequently interrupted this reading.  At length they were obliged to give it up.  Corinne feared for the effects of Oswald’s grief, which vented itself in torrents of tears, and suffered the bitterest pangs at beholding him in this condition, not perceiving that she herself was as much afflicted as he.  “Yes,” said he, stretching his hand to her, “dear friend