These excesses of self-mortification were the outcome of a transient and superficial mood rather than of his real and underlying character. The slow torture of the twenty-one months at Ava and Oung-pen-la had left behind a residuum of temporary enfeeblement. His strong mental vision was for a time beclouded by the mists which arose from his shattered physical constitution. The loss of wife and child at Amherst trod close upon the sufferings at Ava, and these gloomy views and practices were born during the long ensuing domestic solitude. The deep shadow of this loneliness lies athwart many of his letters. _To Mrs. Hasseltine._ “THE SOLITARY’S LAMENT. “‘Together let us sweetly live, Together let us die, And hand in hand those crowns receive That wait us in the sky.’ “Thus Ann and I, for many a year, Together raised our prayer; One-half reached Heaven’s propitious ear One-half was lost in air. “She found a distant, lonely grave, Her foreign friends among; No kindred spirit came to save, None o’er her death-bed hung. “Her dying thoughts we fain would know; But who the tale can tell, Save only that she met the foe, And where they met she fell. “And when I came, and saw her not In all the place around, They pointed out a grassy spot, Where she lay under ground. “And soon another loved one fled, And sought her mother’s side; In vain I stayed her drooping head; She panted, gasped, and died. “Thus one in beauty’s bright array, And one all poor and pale, Have left alike the realms of day, And wandered down the vale— “The vale of death, so dark and drear, Where all things are forgot; Where lie they whom I loved so dear; I call—they answer not. “O, bitter cup which God has given! Where can relief be found? Anon I lift my eyes to heaven. Anon in tears they’re drowned. “Yet He who conquered death and hell Our Friend at last will stand; And all whom He befriends shall dwell In Canaan’s happy land— “Shall joyful meet, no more to part, No more be forced to sigh. That death will chill the warmest heart. And rend the closest tie.