I am, yours, with respect and esteem,
A. O.
As the result of this application, she was received into membership on the 11th of August, 1825.
Dr. Alderson expressed his warm approval of the step his daughter had taken. He had, during the lengthened period of his gradual decline, been much comforted and assisted by the attentions and religious counsels of Mr. J. J. Gurney, and had become attached to those friends whose society she so much esteemed. He wished also to be permitted to find his last resting-place in the Friends’ burial ground; and it was evident that he was destined soon to occupy the “abode appointed for all living.”
There exists an affecting record of the last two years of his life, in a ledger-like book, into which he entered all his medical cases, day by day. The first entry is dated January 25th, 1824, and the last, September 7th, 1825, little more than a month before his death! In this book, he has, every now and then, in the midst of his professional notes, made an entry of some personal feeling or event. Thus, under date 27th January, 1824, he writes, “Southey came—his portrait taken—his hair grey.” 4th March, 1825, “Miserere mei, Domine, precor;” and again, August 16th, “Never felt so like dying, as I have just now done; the sensation was indescribably bad.” At length, on the closing page of the book, he writes:—“I never thought I should live to finish this book. If I live till to-morrow, I shall begin a new one. My pain, at this moment, is bad, my intellects clear, and I look forward to my being saved for happiness hereafter. How much I long for my last end! but in this I act wrongly; for a man ought to wait patiently till his end comes; for I can live no longer than God pleases, let a man talk to me ever so long about curing my legs.”
On the cover of this book Dr. A. has written the following verse of Dr. Watts:—
“Let all the heathen writers join,
To form one perfect book,
Great God! when once compared with Thine,
How mean their writings look.”