This cheerfulness continued during his illness, till his mother, one morning, announced to him, just as he was awaking out of sleep, that Mr. Swanston was dead. He looked at her with a fixed stare, as if stunned by the intelligence. Upon recovering he satisfied himself as to the correctness of the statement, and was never afterwards seen to smile! Still we do not attach much importance to this circumstance; for it often happens that when the countenance is cold and ghastly, the heart within is warm and serene. He lingered for a month, manifesting little interest in what was said or done around him, and on the 5th of July, calmly and imperceptibly fell asleep, aged twenty-one years and three months. So fades a summer cloud away, So sinks the gale when storms are o'er, So gently shuts the eye of day, So fades a wave along the shore. Life's labor done, as sinks the clay, Light from its load the spirit flies, While heaven and earth combine to say, How bless'd the Christian when he dies! His Bible was found upon his pillow, marked down at Jer. xxii: 10, "Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him;" and on the blank leaf this homely but expressive verse was written:-- "'Tis very vain for me to boast, How small a price my Bible cost; The day of judgment will make clear, 'Twas very cheap or very dear." He was buried in the church-yard of Portmoak, in the very centre of the scenes hallowed and beautified by his muse. A monument has been erected to Bruce through the subscription of his friends, of which the following is the simple but appropriate inscription: MICHAEL BRUCE, Born in 1747 at Kinnesswood, In the County of Kinross, Died at the age of twenty-one. In this brief space, Under the pressure of indigence and sickness, He displayed talents truly Poetical. For his aged mother's and his own support He taught a school here. The village was then skirted with old ash trees, The cottage in which he dwelt Was distinguished by a honeysuckle Which he had trained round its Lashed window. Certain inhabitants of his native county, His admirers, Have erected this stone To mark the abode Of Genius and Virtue.