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tender anxiety for her children--she waited on him, worked for them, and
never complained, though care rendered her life one long-drawn, melancholy
dream.
He had introduced himself to Adrian, by a request he made to observe some
planetary motions from his glass. His poverty was easily detected and
relieved. He often thanked us for the books we lent him, and for the use of
our instruments, but never spoke of his altered abode or change of
circumstances. His wife assured us, that he had not observed any
difference, except in the absence of the children from his study, and to
her infinite surprise he complained of this unaccustomed quiet.
He came now to announce to us the completion of his Essay on the
Pericyclical Motions of the Earth's Axis, and the precession of the
equinoctial points. If an old Roman of the period of the Republic had
returned to life, and talked of the impending election of some
laurel-crowned consul, or of the last battle with Mithridates, his ideas
would not have been more alien to the times, than the conversation of
Merrival. Man, no longer with an appetite for sympathy, clothed his
thoughts in visible signs; nor were there any readers left: while each one,
having thrown away his sword with opposing shield alone, awaited the
plague, Merrival talked of the state of mankind six thousand years hence.
He might with equal interest to us, have added a commentary, to describe
the unknown and unimaginable lineaments of the creatures, who would then
occupy the vacated dwelling of mankind. We had not the heart to undeceive
the poor old man; and at the moment I came in, he was reading parts of his
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