Paddington) we passed a cheerful and tranquil season. It was the piety, and resignation, and sweetness, that beamed from your dear mother’s expressive features, which, under the blessing of heaven, shed this felicity over our little society; and rendered this period of trial one of those, that in the retrospect of my life presents itself also as a period of peculiar happiness. “In the course of the year my wound began to make a visible progress towards recovery, under the kind and skilful care of Mr. Cline. During the period of our stay at Paddington, we had indeed much to be grateful for. My mother’s health which had been very precarious, appeared entirely re-established, and she evidently derived much happiness from our being so near her. Your uncle Edward arrived at Portsmouth in June in the Spartan, and I could not resist the inclination to visit my old shipmates. I was accompanied of course by your mother; our reception was not only gratifying but affecting; to the expressions of attachment from the officers and ship’s company, was added the affectionate kindness of your dear uncle. He caused the colours to be hoisted under which we had fought on the 3rd May, and by every possible arrangement studied to gratify my feelings. This little narrative is intended for you alone my dear children, and you can appreciate my reasons for writing it. Your dear uncle requires no additional claim to your affection, but I know this trait of his character will delight you.” Soon after this visit to Portsmouth, Jervis, the eldest son, was attacked by scarlet fever; his recovery occasioned the following reflections recorded by his father. “A kind and merciful Providence soon restored your dear brother to health. These trials which so frequently occur in the course of even the most prosperous life, ought to teach us to repose more upon God, and to indulge less in anxiety, which generally results from a forgetfulness of His divine providence. How often does it happen that when bereft of hope, and abandoned to despair, a sudden change has dispelled the gloom, and restored us to happiness; whilst at others, when we have been indulging in the most flattering prospects, when every thing seemed to smile around us, when to-morrow promised to be in joy, ‘as this day, and more abundant;’ a blow from an unexpected quarter comes, and lays us prostrate. These circumstances and experiences should teach us temperance in the enjoyment of the blessings of this world, and in the measure of our attachment to them; should teach us to form no long view of such short lived felicity; to receive with gratitude that share which is so abundantly bestowed upon us; and when we are threatened with the loss of what we consider so essential to our happiness, to consider that we are in the hands of Him who has our eternal interests in view, and who knows what is good for us, better than we do ourselves. This is true philosophy, but what is still more, this is true religion.”