We found it where he had told us, wrapped in a sealed paper, and
with it a codicil of recent date, in which he named Mr. Miles and
Mr. Pickwick his executors, - as having no need of any greater
benefit from his estate than a generous token (which he bequeathed
to them) of his friendship and remembrance.
After pointing out the spot in which he wished his ashes to repose,
he gave to 'his dear old friends,' Jack Redburn and myself, his
house, his books, his furniture, - in short, all that his house
contained; and with this legacy more ample means of maintaining it
in its present state than we, with our habits and at our terms of
life, can ever exhaust. Besides these gifts, he left to us, in
trust, an annual sum of no insignificant amount, to be distributed
in charity among his accustomed pensioners - they are a long list -
and such other claimants on his bounty as might, from time to time,
present themselves. And as true charity not only covers a
multitude of sins, but includes a multitude of virtues, such as
forgiveness, liberal construction, gentleness and mercy to the
faults of others, and the remembrance of our own imperfections and
advantages, he bade us not inquire too closely into the venial
errors of the poor, but finding that they WERE poor, first to
relieve and then endeavour - at an advantage - to reclaim them.
To the housekeeper he left an annuity, sufficient for her
comfortable maintenance and support through life. For the barber,
who had attended him many years, he made a similar provision. And
I may make two remarks in this place: first, that I think this
pair are very likely to club their means together and make a match
of it; and secondly, that I think my friend had this result in his
mind, for I have heard him say, more than once, that he could not
concur with the generality of mankind in censuring equal marriages
made in later life, since there were many cases in which such
unions could not fail to be a wise and rational source of happiness
to both parties.
The elder Mr. Weller is so far from viewing this prospect with any
feelings of jealousy, that he appears to be very much relieved by
its contemplation; and his son, if I am not mistaken, participates
in this feeling. We are all of opinion, however, that the old
gentleman's danger, even at its crisis, was very slight, and that
he merely laboured under one of those transitory weaknesses to
which persons of his temperament are now and then liable, and which
become less and less alarming at every return, until they wholly
subside.
