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Not long before he removed from his cave, curiosity, associated with respect for him, induced Governor Penn,[1] Dr. Franklin, and some other gentlemen to make a visit to Lay—he received them in his primitive abode with his usual politeness; after some interesting conversation, the table was spread for dinner, and plentifully covered with vegetables and fruit, of which he thus invited them to partake—"This is not the kind of fare yon have at home, hut it is good enough for you or me—and such as it is, you are welcome to eat of it."
Having passed the sixty-third year of his age, he began to feel some of the infirmities incident to the decline of life, which, connected with the incessant application of his time to his favourite subject, and the desire that his wife, to whom he was most tenderly attached,[2] might be relieved from the do-
