We may suppose such a sigh to have escaped the heart at Ellen, as she entered the Tower, where she had spent so many happy hours with her affectionate father. It was Latimer's care to improve even those moments of meditation with the language of truth, and his masculine mind then showed itself well worthy of the admiration Ellen had given it. Never perhaps did she feel or own him to be her lord and master so powerfully as during the short converse they had in the favorite room of their favorite Tower. To strengthen the human mind with words of pious resignation; to point to the wisdom displayed for human reformation and human happiness, was then the duty, and the pleasure, and the comfort of a humble, honest-hearted husband. Perhaps some would sigh to hear that conversation; perhaps it might instruct and improve many a human heart. Let only the effects be told. Latimer and Ellen descended the steps of the Tower even happier than they ascended; for whilst, like many a faithful couple in this world, descending into the vale of years, conscious of ten thousand blessings which they received, for which they can only be thankful, even whilst they own themselves unworthy thereof, so their calm spirits ascend higher as their years descend. So did Latimer and Ellen proceed on their way to the cottage. At that cottage they learnt a lesson such as they never forgot, which made even this visit to the Tower memorable to their last days. CHAPTER LV. THE LAST EVENT. The last event generally finishes a long series of virtues, blessings, providences, crosses, afflictions, or crimes; and if the last event which can happen to poor mortality be the best, the life must have been one of such tribulation that the event which is to terminate it can only be a submissive and a happy one. The last chapter of many a hook may afford us pleasure or pain according to the spirit of the foregone narrative. Some think an entertaining book terminates well with a marriage; and most novels, which feed the passions or entertain the fancy, do so terminate. In such case, they begin with the anticipation of the event, and the only novelty is, the varied way in which the thing is wrought up, so as to bring about the sure termination. There is a taste for style of composition--for variety of incidents--for the parts of speech, and for the sentimentality of a work, which may be very gratifying, but the impressions upon the whole are evanescent. The acme of writing is to improve the heart with such solid good sense as shall make the things written of not easily forgotten. Hence, things true to nature are awakening and striking: whilst things, however marvellous, which are unnatural, being worked up too highly, clog the appetite, and vitiate, if they do not totally destroy, the palate. Plain matter-of-fact things are, therefore, more startling a great deal than the representations of the most vivid fancy or imagination.