“I cannot express the feelings with which I sit down
to the discharge of my present melancholy duty, nor how much I regret the
accident which has removed me from Edinburgh, at a time, of all others, when I
should have wished to administer to your distress all the consolation which
sympathy and affection could have afforded. Your own principles of virtue and
religion will, however, I well know, be your best support in this heaviest of
human afflictions. The removal of my regretted parent from this earthly scene, is to him, doubtless, the
happiest change, if the firmest integrity and the best spent life can entitle
us to judge of the state of our departed friends. When we reflect upon this we
ought almost to suppress the selfish feelings of regret that he was not spared
to us a little longer, especially when we consider that it was not the will of
Heaven that he
| 300 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“P.S.—Permit me, my dear Madam, to add a line to
Scott’s letter, to express to
you how sincerely I feel for your loss, and how much I regret that I am not
near you to try by the most tender care to soften the pain that so great a
misfortune must inflict on you, and on all those who had the happiness of
being connected with him. I hope soon to have the pleasure of returning to
| DEATH OF HIS FATHER—1799. | 301 |
