He passed into the Campaigner's keeping, from which
alone he was rescued by the summons of pallid death. He met that summons
like a philosopher; rejected rather testily all the mortuary consolations
which his nephew-in-law, Josey's husband, thought proper to bring to his
bedside; and uttered opinions which scandalised that divine. But as he
left Mrs. M'Craw only 500 pounds, thrice that sum to his sister, and the
remainder of his property to his beloved niece, Rosa Mackenzie, now Rosa
Newcome, let us trust that Mr. M'Craw, hurt and angry at the ill-favour
shown to his wife, his third young wife, his best-beloved Josey, at the
impatience with which the deceased had always received his, Mr. M'Craw's,
own sermons;--let us hope, I say, that the reverend gentleman was
mistaken in his views respecting the present position of Mr. James
Binnie's soul; and that Heaven may have some regions yet accessible to
James, which Mr. M'Craw's intellect has not yet explored. Look,
gentlemen! Does a week pass without the announcement of the discovery of
a new comet in the sky, a new star in the heaven, twinkling dimly out of
a yet farther distance, and only now becoming visible to human ken though
existent for ever and ever? So let us hope divine truths may be shining,
and regions of light and love extant, which Geneva glasses cannot yet
perceive, and are beyond the focus of Roman telescopes.
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