“I have been long intending to write to you, but from the nature of the melancholy communication you will have received long before this reaches you, I could with difficulty bring myself to the exertion necessary.

“The Almighty is indeed merciful to us, and tempers the wind to our situation. You will scarcely believe, my dear Madam, that it should be possible for me to say that for some weeks past I have enjoyed more real tranquillity of mind than I have ever before known. It is nevertheless absolutely true. My happiest days were never unattended with anxiety. They were attended at the same time with a most inadequate idea of the value of the blessings I possessed. That none ever lost a more inestimable treasure, all who knew her are deeply sensible. But I humbly hope that she has shewn me how to live and how to die. I once thought that I was leading a harmless and a blameless life, that I had a right to the rewards of another world. How different are my present sentiments, and how immediately did they change in this last hour of trial. I felt and feel so far from having fulfilled the duties of my station, that every recollection excites remorse by shewing me cause for it. When I thought I was living in the exercise of the fondest affection, how much neglect was admitted, and when I try my religious duties by the same standard, the effect is much more humiliating and awful, but yet the effect is peace. I no longer consider my own merit as the means of my ever rejoining my beloved B.; but the mercy and goodness of God and the atonement made by our blessed Redeemer. This is a foundation which nothing can shake, and this makes me view her as only preceding me for a short time. This consideration, my dear madam, is not a gloomy one. It has not put me out of conceit of this life. That would be impious and ungrateful. I shall enjoy with thankfulness, I hope, the years which a kind Providence may permit me to remain in this world, and endeavour to devote them to the duties of my station, to the education and happiness of my children; but it has taken the sting from death. I think I shall feel no longer any solicitude on that account, and that when called for I shall be able to go through my task with the same serenity that my beloved wife evinced. Had she been preparing for her journey to England, she could not have been more calm and collected. May my last end, may all our last ends be like hers.

“Your most dutiful and affectionate

“J. B.”

He was at the moment unconscious that another loss had occurred, which was to form a fresh trial for his faith, and was to search still more deeply the foundation of that peace on which he had been resting. His son Jervis, the boy to whom reference has been so often made, and in whose opening qualities the fond parents had delighted to trace the seeds of much of mental and of moral promise, was carried off by a sudden attack of fever and sore throat, while at school at Winchester, on August 27, 1817, just one month after his mother’s decease. A letter written to his brother on this occasion, may with propriety be subjoined, as exhibiting the spirit of calm Christian submission with which Sir Jahleel resigned these objects of his tenderest affection.

“Simons Bay, January 16th, 1818.

“My Dear E.

“Your kind and affectionate letter I found upon my arrival from the eastward. The melancholy intelligence contained had already reached me, having been most considerately sent by —— to prevent my receiving too sudden a blow upon my return home. It was indeed severe, but tempered with mercy by that benign Being, who has granted me a far greater share of blessing than afflictions, and whose present awful dispensation I feel every day more and more to be intended for my ultimate happiness. I was indeed, my dear E. too much absorbed in my worldly possessions, from my earliest infancy. I had attached the highest value to domestic felicity, and I need not tell you to what an extent I was permitted to enjoy it: instead of finding it like all other worldly objects, greater in prospect than when present, I experienced that it was more solid and real than my most sanguine expectations had ever pictured it, and that my home became every day dearer to me. I almost lost sight of the hand which bestowed my blessings in the enjoyment of them, and in my anxiety for their future welfare. I can now see the wickedness of such feelings. When my beloved wife was called away from me, the world appeared to have totally changed its aspect to me, and lost every source of comfort. Although I neither repined at the divine dispensation, nor gave myself up to despair, yet there was indifference as to this life, which I hoped was not culpable, but could not approve. I almost forgot the blessings which were still left me, and the necessity for strong exertion to fulfil my duty to them. The last calamity I now feel to have been sent to awaken me from so criminal a lethargy, and I hope it has effectually done so. The first consolatory reflection which came to my assistance, and it was immediate, was that my darling B. had been spared the agony which I felt; that her gentle spirit had been placed beyond the reach of affliction, had been permitted, during the last weeks of its continuance here, to devote itself to its Creator without one anxious thought either for itself or for those dear to it. How dreadfully would this angelic tranquillity have been disturbed had she heard of the illness and loss of her darling child. This idea never deserts me, and has comforted me more than I can describe. I can hardly persuade myself I have met with a second loss in so short a time, indeed I have almost lost sight of my own affliction in the contemplation of their happiness.

“Your affectionate

“J. B.”