Having sent his book into the world, he retired to Cardington, whence his son had been removed to a well-regulated lunatic asylum. Here, as a friend of his has said, "he continued to devise liberal things for his poor neighbours and tenants." As this was the last time he resided at Cardington, many anecdotes of his generosity at this period have been treasured up, as sacred memorials of this loved benefactor; but after seeing that it was always the chief business of his life to do good to others, it is needless to multiply individual instances. Some extracts from the journal he kept at this time, will show the springs of all his actions; and when we behold these secret workings of his mind, we feel the beauty and harmony of his life and character.

"If the projectile motion shows a forming God, the centripetal force, acting incessantly, shows a preserving God.

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"God considers what weak creatures we are, and therefore gives us every motive to do good.

"Jacob speaks of the Angel who had been his guide in all his journeys and had delivered him out of all his dangers; Jacob's God I trust is my God, and my guide, and my portion for

ever.

"An approving conscience adds pleasure to every act of piety, benevolence, and self-denial. It inspires serenity and brightens every gloomy hour, disarming adversity, disease, and death. It is my ambition to put on the Lord Jesus; 'to have the same mind in me which was also in him.'

Health, time, powers of mind, and worldly possessions are from God. Do I consecrate them all to him? So help me, O God! my

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"Our superfluities should be given up for the convenience of others - our conveniences should give place to the necessities of others—and even our necessities give way to the extremities of the poor.

"Sunday evening, March 15th, 1789."

IN Mr. Howard's work on Lazarettos, he intimated an intention of going abroad, again, on the same mission which had already carried him into regions infected with the plague; and, anticipating the construction which the world might put upon such devotion to the cause, he says in the conclusion of that book, "To my country, I commit the result of my past labors. It is my intention again to quit it for the purpose of revisiting Russia, Turkey, and some other countries, extending my tour in the East. I am not insensible of the dangers that must attend such a journey. Trusting, however, in the protection of that kind Providence which has hitherto preserved me, I calmly and cheerfully commit myself to the disposal of unerring wisdom. Should it please God to cut off my life in the prosecution of this design, let not my conduct be uncandidly imputed to rashness or enthusiasm,

but to a serious, deliberate conviction that I am pursuing the path of duty; and to a sincere desire of being made an instrument of more extensive usefulness to my fellow-creatures than could be expected in the narrower circle of a retired life."

Having witnessed the fatal effects and terrific nature of the plague, and believing that very little was yet known of the manner in which it was propagated, Howard conceived that a patient and careful investigation of the subject, in those regions where it raged, might lead to important results. He knew that the best way of coming at a true theory on any subject, is by a careful collection of all the facts that can be ascertained concerning it. He had been long trained to this kind of work, and he was willing to devote himself to it, in the hope of being the humble means of mitigating the horrors of the plague. He used to say of himself, "I am the plodder who goes about to collect materials for men of genius to make use of." He was, however, very far from being a mere plodder; his turn of mind was peculiarly fitted to laborious accuracy and minute examination, and his fine moral qualities turned these powers to the highest account.

Whilst he was deliberately and cheerfully making up his mind to this distant and perilous en

terprise, he was fully impressed with the belief that he should not live to return to his native land, as appears by his conversations with all his intimate friends, when taking leave of them. When his old friend and pastor at Stoke Newington was expressing his concern at parting with him, from a persuasion they should never meet again upon earth, Howard cheerfully replied, "We shall soon meet in heaven ;" and as he expected to die of the plague in Egypt, rather than elsewhere, he added, "The way to heaven, from Grand Cairo, is as near as from London." To another friend he said, "You will probably never see me again; be that as it may, it is a matter of no concern to me, whether I lay down my life in Turkey, in Egypt, in Asia Minor, or elsewhere; my whole endeavour is to fulfill, according to the ability of so weak an instrument as I am, the will of that gracious Providence who has condescended to raise in me a firm persuasion that I am employed in what is consonant to his divine approbation."

With a mind thus fully prepared to do right and abide the consequences, he was not liable to be shaken in his purpose by the remonstrances and entreaties of those, who, not understanding the ground of his determination, thought to dissuade him from it, by forcible representations of its