Great part of the lungs, it appears, is totally
unserviceable for respiration; from the remainder, especially in
times of coughing, it is with the greatest difficulty that breath
enough is obtained. Our poor Patient passes the night in a
sitting posture; cannot lie down: that fact sticks with me ever
since I heard it! He is very weak, very pale; still "writes a
great deal daily"; but does not wish to see anybody; declines
to "see even Carlyle," who offered to go to him. His only
Brother, Anthony Sterling, a hardy soldier, lately withdrawn from
the Army, and settled in this quarter, whom we often communicate
with, is about going down to the Isle of Wight this week: he saw
John four days ago, and brings nothing but bad news,--of which
indeed this removal of his to the neighborhood of the scene is a
practical testimony. The old Father, a Widower for the last two
years, and very lonely and dispirited, seems getting feebler and
feebler: he was here yesterday: a pathetic kind of spectacle to
us. Alas, alas! But what can be said? I say Nothing; I have
written only one Note to Sterling: I feel it probable that I
shall never see him more,--nor his like again in this world.
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