some things which I seemed to have altogether forgotten. Among them is this, that, just before returning to my school, I went with Lawrence to pay my respects to Lord Fairfax, who was come for a visit to his cousin at Belvoir. We found the family, however, in sudden distress at the news, just arrived, of the death in battle of Thomas, the second son, who was killed in the Indies, in an engagement on board his Majesty's ship Harwich. We made, on this account, but a short stay. I remember that, as we rode away, Lawrence said to me: "A great preacher called Jeremy Taylor wrote a sermon about death, and gave a long list of the many ways of dying. Which way, George, would you wish to die?" I said I did not wish to die at all.
Lawrence said: "But you will die some day. What way would you choose?" I said I thought to die in battle would be best, and I said this because I remembered with horror watching how my father died and how greatly he suffered.
Lawrence said: "The good preacher did not speak of that way to die." Now, as I write, being in years, it seems that not in that way shall I die, nor does it matter.
