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LIFE OF MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY.

assisting to carry it out. I have no farm, neither do I cultivate a parcel of ground. Therefore I say, although I advocate this measure so earnestly, and have done so for many years, there is no one in the land who is less to be benefited by its success than I."

His health gave way under the fatigue and exposure of this last trip, before he had fulfilled all his engagements, and about the middle of October he hurried home. He exclaimed to his wife as he crossed the threshold, "My dear, I am come home to die." Loving hands with heavy hearts helped him to the bed from which he was never again to rise. For four long months he lay, at times suffering mortal pain, but in the intervals dictating and revising the last edition of his 'Physical Geography.' A short time before the anniversary of his birth, January 14th, he prayed aloud in the darkness of the night that God would forgive him the few years he lacked of man's allotted span, and take him home. He sent for his son-in-law, S. Wellford Corbin, of Farleyvale, and begged that he would stay by him and nurse him till the end. This he faithfully did, and in Ids arms the last breath was drawn.

One of his daughters thus wrote:—

He loved to have us all assembled round his bed, and if we were not all within the range of his vision he would call out the names of those he missed. Gazing earnestly in the face of each, he would say something appropriate and affectionate, always ending with "You see how God has answered my prayers, for I know yon every one;" adding, "I shall retain my senses to the last. God has granted me that as a token of my acceptance. I have set my house in order, my prayers have all been answered, my children are gathered round my bed—and now Lord, what wait I for?" He repeated the following prayer of eleven petitions, which he wished each of his children and grandchildren to use every day: