DEATH OF BISHOP HEBER.

Had, like the nightwind's breathings when they roll
O'er ocean, sunk into her inmost soul,

And woke strange memories of pleasures gone,
Sweet thoughts of long past joy and happiness,
And feelings all too pure for language to express !
Soothed by such fancies, now the mellow light
Of evening, fading fast into the night,
Hath left in shadow every hill and wood,
And rock and dell in that deep solitude:

She fondly watches from her leafy nook
The antler'd stag at drink in the clear brook,
Or, with his mates perched on some distant height,
Snuffing the evening breeze with keen delight,
Till, bedward-minded, dashing down the slope,
He seeks afar the covert's sheltering cope.

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Few men of letters, whose earthly existence had been suspended so early or so suddenly, have been more affectionately remembered. It is not to the extent of his learning, his academical distinctions, his worldly honours, or to any temporal cause, that the cherished name of Heber owes its peculiar popularity; it is rather endeared to the Christian community by the excellence of his heart, the charitable tone that tempered all the acts of his public life, the unaffected sincerity with which he associated himself with the humblest of our exemplary missionaries, in furthering the great good cause, which he had undertaken to advocate for a price this world was unable to pay.

Born at Malpas, in Cheshire, on the 21st of April, 1783, Heber very early in life gave himself to God." Entering Brazen-Nose College, Oxford, at the age of seventeen, he soon distinguished himself as the possessor of original genius, by the composition of several prize poems. One of these, "Palestine," the subject of which was "after his own heart," laid the foundation of that character for ability to which he subsequently added. There was an anxious spirit always struggling in his bosom, and scarcely was he elevated to a fellowship in All Souls' College, before he meditated an extensive tour in Germany, Russia, the Crimea, and other remote and little-known regions of eastern Europe. Many of the invaluable observations made during these tours appear in the travels of the learned Dr. E. D. Clarke. On his return to England, he resumed the poet's pen, and published his "Europe," an episode on the war then raging on the continent, soon after which he was presented to the benefice of Hodnet, Shropshire, of which the Heber family are patrons. About this period he espoused Amelia, daughter of the Rev. W. Shipley, Dean of St. Asaph, and for some years after his marriage, devoted himself with assiduity to the duties of his parish. It was in 1822 that his memoirs of Jeremy Taylor appeared, with a revision of his opinions and published works, and in which the soundness of his own views on the most essential doctrinal points was fully disclosed.

The death of Dr. Middleton leaving the see of Calcutta vacant, the appointment was offered to Heber, and, as nothing could be more consonant to his fervour as well as to his existing feelings, than an opportunity of diffusing light where all was darkness, he cheerfully accepted the proposal, and sailed for the East Indies on the 16th of June, 1823. On Ascension-day of the following year, he held his first visitation in the cathedral of his see, which was attended by a number of clergy, as well as by a large congregation of the laity. Other parts of his diocese appearing to require his presence, he set out, soon after, on a sacred tour to Madras, Tanjore, and Trichinopoly, consecrating churches, preaching to the multitude, healing differences between princes, and promoting the purposes of the Church Missionary Society with a zeal the most unabated and successful. But, what is too lofty is most likely to fall soonest-too bright, to fade earliest the brilliant career of the pious Heber was therefore destined to be brief. He had only rested a second day at Trichinopoly on his visitation tour, and only completed a second year of his sacred office in India, when he was summoned to the footstool of his Creator's throne.

The manner of his death was extraordinary, was unexpected. Having received an address from a native catechist, at the head of a file of native Christians, and delivered a suitable reply, the bishop returned to the hospitable mansion of Mr. Bird, whose guest he had been from his arrival at Trichinopoly. Conversing familiarly with his friend for some minutes, he proceeded to the bath, accompanied by the Rev. Mr. Doran, who went into a bathing tent only a few yards distant: but, before the expiration of twenty minutes, an alarm was raised, and the melancholy intelligence quickly spread, that his lordship had expired in the bath, from a fit of apoplexy. Medical aid was procured, bleeding resorted to, but in vain-the spirit of the pious Heber had returned to Him who gave it.