LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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322 LAST YEARS AND DEATH. the new science building laid, went to Tokyo in Oct(}. ber to work for the university endowment fund. Count Malsugata, Minister of Finance, became much interested in his projects, but owing to the attempt on the life of Count Okuma, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and the unsettled condition of politics, not much was a.{)Complished. Mr. Neesima therefore went to Maye­bashi for a brief rest. Here he contracted a severe cold, but returned to Tokyo and resumed his work. A relapse followed, and in a weak condition he went with his clerk to Oiso, a health resort on the seashore, about forty miles southwest of Yokohama, where· he died. The last letter he wrote to Mrs. Hardy was from Kyoto, October 5th, just before leaving for Tokyo. " Your favor written at West Goulds borough was at hand yesterday. A precious memory is connected with the house where you wrote it, and whence you doubtless looked down from time to time on the calm expanse of that picturesque bay, spotted here and there by white sails. The memory of it is as fresh to me as if I saw it yesterday. It is so sad, and yet so sacred. • "It is quite warm to-day and the doors of my study are wide open. As the weather is calm I could not help being calm also. Here I am reflecting upon the past, the past connected with you. My thought is flying far off to a distant land, a celestial spot on earth. It is almost immaterial to me whether it be on the earth or in heaven. Where my thought goes there is something sweet and sacred. " Since I had my serious heart attack I cannot engage in any vigorous work. But my thought is busily en­gaged with the idea of our future university and of building up Japan. The Christian work is somewhat neutralized .now on account of the union question.

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