then in the Covenanted Civil Service, and of his second and unmarried daughter Bessie.
In fact he is nearing the portal of that eternity which he had reverently yet hopefully foreshadowed to himself in almost every letter of consequence written to his nearest relatives during many years past. But, like other rulers, conscious of the great issues that depended upon him, and loth to rouse public alarm, he hesitates to admit that he is ill. He says nothing of this in a letter to Montgomery of 25th August. He mentions his plans for the tour in the coming winter, and his engagement at Rúrki for the Ganges Canal in the spring. This is fated to be his last letter to the brother best beloved.
All this while, heat and weakness notwithstanding, he had been writing out with his own hand extracts from religious works in the manuscript book already mentioned, which he had begun at the suggestion of his daughter Maynie. As the season advances these entries seem to increase, as if his soul felt itself being gradually dissociated from affairs of state, and turning towards the things that are beyond mortal vision. The last Sunday but two before he started was the 28th of August. On that day he wrote out no less than four passages, entering them in different parts of the book, on the high subject of spiritual-mindedness; the extracts being all from Owen's work on this subject. The passages are too long to cite, but a very few sentences from each of them may be given, in order to show the tenor of his thoughts.
