Watson's Chymistry. Articulating with
difficulty, he said, "From this book, he who knows nothing may learn a
great deal; and he who knows, will be pleased to find his knowledge
recalled to his mind in a manner highly pleasing." In the month of
August he set out for Lichfield, on a visit to Mrs. Lucy Porter, the
daughter of his wife by her first husband; and, in his way back, paid
his respects to Dr. Adams, at Oxford. Mrs. Williams died, at his house
in Bolt court, in the month of September, during his absence. This was
another shock to a mind like his, ever agitated by the thoughts of
futurity. The contemplation of his own approaching end was constantly
before his eyes; and the prospect of death, he declared, was terrible.
For many years, when he was not disposed to enter into the conversation
going forward, whoever sat near his chair, might hear him repeating,
from Shakespeare,
"Aye, but to die, and go we know not where;
To lie in cold obstruction and to rot;
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod, and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods"--
And from Milton,
--"Who would lose,
For fear of pain, this intellectual being?"
By the death of Mrs. Williams he was left in a state of destitution,
with nobody but Frank, his black servant, to sooth his anxious moments.
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