birmingham." 'Rather dull, Sir, is it not'? said Boswell. "Why, yes, it is, but it is all I have to Tead; and so you find me roasting apples and reading the ' History of Birmingham'." Love books like that, says Mr. Burrell, and you will' never be at a loss what to do with your time.
He had a big heart too. His house always had in it'two or three poor people, whom he kept, out of pity's sake. Old Mrs. Williams, who had an awful temper, was one. When his friends rallied him on going to the benefit of Mrs. Abington, an actress, he said, "When the public cares a thousandth part as much for you as it does for her, I will go to your benefit too." That settled them.
He was deeply pious too. On his deathbed he got his dear friend, Sir Joshua Reynolds, to promise that he would never put brush to canvas on a Sunday again, and he never did. He had a simple faith in God that never wavered. His life, for the most part, was full of trouble; he was half blind, poor, and had to fight his way up; but he never raves and screams about injustice, as some do; the account he gives of his paralytic stroke, as Mr. Birrell says, "bark and tonic to the mind." He submits to it, as God's will.
The greatest men of that great age were round his deathbed. The great Burke said, "Sir, such a number may be oppressive to you."" "Sir," said the dying man, "it is not so; I should be in a wretched state indeed if your company was not a delight to me." No wonder, it was too much for Burke; he broke down in tears, and had to leave the room. May you and I leave this world, in such love to God and man, and it will be well with us.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.