Litchfield enquirer., 1880-09-02

| tl6n nave loQnn some which thought might
be read with interest by the patrons of your
paper send you copy of one of the last
letters received from him, which you may
publish, if You deem it worthy of publication.
He died on the 9th day of January next after
the date of his letter, having nearly reached
the aye of SO years. .s.. ..a-l q 81
...t ..--- .zr. G.. F. SEDGwIoK
TRISITY COLLEGE. 49,
i CAMBRIDGE. May II, 1872.
Ny Dur G@n7ra!:-If YOU look at the sig
nature affixed to this letter, you will perceive
that it comes from An old correspondent, but
You will not know the hand writing. The
'litnness and irritahilty of my sight, and the
feebleness and iairmity of old age make me
Incapable of writing my longer letters am
compelled, therefore, to dictate them to one
who acts as my secretary, as | am now doing.
Occasionally, indeed, write notes and short
to read all the words which my pen is tracing,
but endeavor not to murmur against Provl-
dence, because now, in my S8th year, l am
feeling some of the inevitable infifmities OF
old age endeavor to keep alive spirit Of
thankfulness for His long suffering and for
the many mercies and comforts by which He
still surrounds me. You will perceive by the
date that am still living in Trinity College,
but do not enter into the hustle of its socie.
ty, or sit down at the common table, or join
in the services of the College chapel. have
great bodily infrmlty, which, alas !! makes
me unfit for society, and during all the past
WINTER doomed me to life of comparative
solitude, and this solitude was the more OPP
pressive, as the imperfecton of my sight
not unfrequently cuts me off from the enjoy
ment of that library which covers all the walls
of my apartment. also feel my solitude the
more from dizziness in my sense of hearing,
which has lately much increased upon me.
Formerly, had great delight in taking turns
in the pleasure grounds of the College, and the
Botanic Gardens of the University, where l
could listen, at this season of the year, to the
merry songs of our blackbirds, thrushes, and
nightingales all of which abound in our Col
lege groves, but now am cut off from that
enjoyment, and their notes raise no sensation
in my old, dull ears. Old Chaucer, who wrote
full five hundred years ago, described the
opening of the month of May in the following
| words: -,
1.-The busy Lark, the messenger of day,
Saluteth with her song, the morrow grey,
And fiery Phebeus riseth up so bright
That all the Orient lausheth at the sight"
Th.ae fnnr beautiful lines would but very i'll
describe the month of May, 1872, for the
weather has been detestable ever since the
month came in, and we have had a dismal
succession of cold and gloomy days with del
uges of rain, hail storms, occasional claps of
thunder and hardly ceasing tempests This,
indeed has been the character of our spring
for some years back. Surely the British eli
mate must have deteriorated during the five
hundred years that have passed behind us
since Chauce: sung so sweetly in the praise of
the month of May.
During the Michaelnas Term of 1870, l gave
my SD course of annual geological lectures,
without single years interruption, but at the
Michaelmas Term of this academic year l
found myself quite unequal to the task of lee
turing, and Professor Morris, a celebrated
geolsgist, was appointed by the University to
give my annual course, which he did, greatly
to the satisfaction Of the University and of
myself. ..,I .., -,..
Our Geological Museum contains one of the
doblest collections to be seen in the British
Isles, and, though very lame and f, eble, / am
still able to hobble on my crutch stick as far
as my museum, the formation of which has
been, to me, source of much happiness, and
partly supplied the place of wife and children.
l have told you before, that l fill an office
at Norwich, which compels ME to reside there
two or three calendar months during the year,
and hope to keep my Cathedral residence, as
we call it, during parts of the coming sum-
mer and autumn, aud while there, am habit
ually joinei by two or three nieces, who great
Iy cheer me and make me feel the genial hap
piness of family man, but know the great
uncertainty of life in my old age, and there
fore seldom indulge in worldly visions of the
future. 'f ',+% ia' 90 "'
was much delighted to read the cores
pondence and life of your cousin, the late
Miss Sedgwick of Lenox, Massachusetts, and
what a beautiful family history is recorded in
the book to which have alluded. s,.-S - o..
hope, my dear General, you, will be able
to give me cheering account of all your fam
lily party at Sharon. do not know any of
them personally, but I send an old mans bles-
sing to your house. -
You cannot lock for any social or political
news from solitary, deaf and half blind old
man, who mopes by himself in a set of COL
lege rooms, but my servant reads to me por-
ton of our daily papers, and most fervently
do wish that all matters in dispute between
this little country and your great continent
may be brought to an amicable adjustment.
Like most old persons, am averse to rapid
changes, and often think that the social and
political movements of the present day are
| rather to be regarded as fever in the state,
than healthy action of its constitutional
strength. During all the middle and autumn
al period of my life, ], was Liberal, but
never liked eur second Reform Bill, which I
thought endangered the proper action of our
House of Peers, and without that proper act
ion, there can be no. stability in the British
constitution, and now in the winter of old age
l have become one of the party Of Liberal
Conservatives. AS d Churchman, dread
some clouds which see on the horizon of the
religious world. We have great deal of ia
naticsln and a great deal of infdelity, and in
the discussions of the Convocation now going
on, perceive much zeal and learning, but
more fanaticism, and what amazes me, an I'M
natural hank after the flalatrnr,s fooferiea