i8₄7- RICHARD CLEASBY.

cm

as has been shewn, under medical care for an affection of the chest, he was seized with
a slight fever, at first supposed to be of a rheumatic character, but which towards the
end of the month rapidly passed into a low typhoid type. On Monday, the 27th,
though confined to his bed, he ' dictated in a firm voice and collected manner' a
letter to his brother, in which he said that he was in no danger, but that time was
needful for his recovery. Complaints were made of his treatment; but upon this
subject it is now needless to enter. It is enough to say that he grew rapidly worse
and never rallied. On Wednesday, the 6th of October, at 10 A.M., he had finished his
mortal course. His relations had no opportunity of being with him in his last moments,
for they never heard of his danger till they received the intelligence of his death. On
the 14th of October his remains were deposited in a vault below the church of St.
Peter, where they still remain.

So passed away the spirit of Richard Cleasby, one of the most indefatigable
students that ever lived. If he were fortunate in the circumstances of his life, he was
surely most unhappy in his death,—snatched away just as the mechanical part of his
labours was drawing to a close, but before he could bring his philological power to bear
upon the mass of materials which he had collected. His methodical and yet poetic
mind, his far-sighted and yet microscopic eye, will no longer note day by day the
last penny of his expenses and the very spot where he took his friends to dine,
side by side with entries full of a lively interest in philology, literature, and art, and
of delight at the smiling face of nature as she revives at the soft breath of spring.
For him the first chaffinch will chirp in vain, the earliest swallow twitter, and the
beech and willow burst out into tender green. He is gone like Balder to the
realm of night, never to return. It is poor compensation for the cessation of an
existence so full of spirit and work to reflect that at the same time came rest and
peace; that all that weary trouble which wealth brought with it was over for ever;
that no letters on business from London or Westmorland would now pursue him ;
that his life-long chase after health at German Baths was at an end; and that as he
passed from city to city surgeons anpl physicians would no longer torture and torment
him. These were but accidents, and, though troublesome, Richard Cleasby bore them
like a man, in the firm faith that the task which he had set himself to do would still
be fulfilled. It has been at last fulfilled, but not in the way which either Cleasby or
his heirs at first proposed. As soon as the first shock caused by his unlooked-for death
had passed over, the question arose, what was to be done with the Dictionary, which
it was well known he had been on the very eve of publishing ? The greatest interest
in the subject was naturally shewn in Copenhagen, and Mr. Anthony Cleasby received
a message from the Crown Prince, as President of the Society of Northern Antiquaries,
expressing his 'deeply-felt sympathy at his decease, and' his 'desire that the work might
be completed to which he had devoted himself with such zeal and perseverance for
so many years/ After mature deliberation it was resolved that the MS. should be
completed at Copenhagen, under the care of a committee of three—two of whom were
M. Krieger, the \vell-known statesman and antagonist of Prince Bismark; and M. Konrad