walks, and gave animation to every lonely scene. His idea 35 is associated with every charm of nature; we hear his voice in the echo which he once delighted to awaken; his spirit haunts every grove which he once frequented; we think of him in the wild upland solitude, or amidst the pensive beauty of the valley. In the freshness of joyous morning, we remember his beaming smiles and bounding gaiety; and when sober evening returns with its gathering shadows and subduing quiet, we call to mind many a twilight hour of gentle talk and sweet-souled melancholy. Each lonely place shall him restore, And mourn'd till pity's self be dead. Another cause that perpetuates the memory of the deceased in the country, is, that the grave is more immediately in sight of the survivors. They pass it on their way to prayer; it meets their eyes when their hearts are softened by the exercises of devotion; they linger about it on the sabbath, when the mind is disengaged from worldly cares, and most disposed to turn aside from present pleasures and present loves, and to sit down among the solemn mementos of the past. In North Wales the peasantry kneel and pray over the graves of their deceased friends for several Sundays after the interment; and where the tender rite of strewing and planting flowers is still practised, it is always renewed on Easter, Whitsuntide 36, and other festivals, when the season brings the companion of former festivity more vividly to mind. It is also invariably performed by the nearest relatives and friends; no menials nor hirelings are employed; and if a neighbour yields assistance, it would be deemed an insult to offer compensation. I have dwelt upon this beautiful rural custom, because, as it is one of the last, so 37 it is one of the holiest offices of love. The grave is the ordeal 38 of true affection. It is there that the 35) his idea = der Gedanke an ihn; das Possessivpron. vertritt hier den genetivus obiectivus des Personalpronomens. 36) Whitsuntide = Pfingstzeit, Pfingsten = White-sunday tide, or the time between Easter and Pentecost when the converts in the primitive Christian churches appeared in white garments (Smart). 37) Zu as... so vergl. das lat. ut... ita sowol... als auch; wie so auch. 38) órdeal Gottesurtheil, Prüfstein, aus dem mittellat. ordâlium, plur. ordâlia, dies aber von dem german. Ausdruck ags. ordâl Richterspruch, Gottesurtheil, ahd. urteili, nhd. Urtheil. . divine passion of the soul manifests its superiority to the instinctive impulse of mere animal attachment. The latter must be continually refreshed and kept alive by the presence of its object; but the love that is seated in the soul can live on long remembrance. The mere inclinations of sense languish and decline with the charms which excited them, and turn with shuddering disgust from the dismal precincts of the tomb; but it is thence that truly spiritual affection rises purified from every sensual desire, and returns like a holy flame to illumine and sanctify the heart of the survivor. The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal every other affliction to forget; but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open this affliction we cherish and brood over in solitude. Where is the mother who would willingly forget the infant that perished like a blossom from her arms, though every recollection is a pang? Where is the child that would willingly forget the most tender of parents, though to remember be but to lament? Who, even in the hour of agony, would forget the friend over whom he mourns? Who, even when the tomb is closing upon 39 the remains of her he most loved; when he feels his heart, as it were, crushed in the closing of its portal 40; would accept of consolation that must be bought by forgetfulness? No, the love which survives the tomb is one of the noblest attributes of the soul. If it has its woes, it has likewise its delights; and when the overwhelming burst of grief is calmed into the gentle tear of recollection; when the sudden anguish and the convulsive agony over the present ruins of all that we most loved is softened away into pensive meditation on all that it was in the days of its loveliness who would root out such a sorrow from the heart? Though it may sometimes throw a passing cloud over the bright hour of gaiety; or spread a deeper sadness over the hour of gloom; yet who would exchange it, even for the song of pleasure, or the burst of revelry? No, there is a voice from the tomb sweeter than song. There is a remembrance of the dead to which we turn even from the charms of the living. Oh, the grave! - the grave! It buries every error covers every defect — extinguishes every resentment! From its peaceful bosom spring none but fond regrets and tender recollections. Who can look down upon the grave 39) to close upon deutsch mit anderer Anschauung schliessen über. 40) its d. h. of the tomb. = sich even of an enemy, and not feel a compunctious throb, that he should ever have warred with the poor handful of earth, that lies mouldering before him? -- But the grave of those we loved what a place for meditation! There it is that we call up in long review the whole history of virtue and gentleness, and the thousand endearments lavished upon us almost unheeded in the daily intercourse of intimacy there it is that we dwell upon the tenderness, the solemn, awful tenderness of the parting scene. The bed of death, with all its stifled griefs its noiseless attendance its mute, watchful assiduities. The last testimonies of expiring love! The feeble, fluttering, thrilling - oh, how thrilling! - pressure of the hand. The last fond look of the glazing eye turning upon us even from the threshold of existence! The faint, faltering accents, struggling in death to give one more assurance of affection! Ay, go to the grave of buried love, and meditate! There settle the account with thy conscience for every past benefit unrequited every past endearment unregarded, of that departed being, who can never never return to be soothed by thy contrition! - never If thou art a child, and hast ever added a sorrow to the soul, or a furrow to the silvered brow of an affectionate parent if thou art a husband, and hast ever caused the fond bosom that ventured its whole happiness in thy arms to doubt one moment of thy kindness or thy truth if thou art a friend, and hast ever wronged, in thought, or word, or deed, the spirit that generously confided in thee if thou art a lover, and hast that true heart which now then be sure that every ever given an unmerited pang to lies cold and still beneath thy feet; unkind look, every ungracious word, every ungentle action, will come thronging back upon thy memory, and knocking dolefully at thy soul then be sure that thou wilt lie down sorrowing and repentant on the grave, and utter the unheard groan, and pour the unavailing tear; more deep, more bitter, because unheard and unavailing. Then weave thy chaplet of flowers, and strew the beauties of nature about the grave; console thy broken spirit, if thou canst, with these tender, yet futile tributes of regret; but take warning by the bitterness of this thy contrite affliction over the dead, and henceforth be more faithful and affectionate in the discharge of thy duties to the living. In writing the preceeding article, it was not pretended to give a full detail of the funeral customs of the English peasantry, but merely to furnish a few hints and quotations illustrative of particular rites, to be appended, by way of note, to another paper, which has been withheld. The article swelled insensibly into its present form, and this is mentioned as an apology for so brief and casual a notice of these usages, after they have been amply and learnedly investigated in other works. I must observe, also, that I am well aware that this custom of adorning graves with flowers prevails in other countries besides England. Indeed, in some it is much more general, and is observed even by the rich and fashionable; but it is then apt to lose its simplicity, and to degenerate into affectation. Bright, in his Travels in Lower Hungary, tells of monuments of marble, and recesses formed for retirement, with seats placed among bowers of greenhouse plants; and that the graves generally are covered with the gayest flowers of the season. He gives a casual picture of filial piety 42, which I cannot but describe; for I trust it is as useful as it is delightful, to illustrate the amiable virtues of the sex. ,When I was at Berlin", says he,,,I followed the celebrated Iffland 48 to the grave. Mingled with some pomp, you might trace much real feeling. In the midst of the ceremony, my attention was attracted by a young woman who stood on a mound of earth, newly covered with turf, which she anxiously protected from the feet of the passing crowd. It was the tomb of her parent; and the figure of this affectionate daughter presented a monument more striking than the most costly work of art." 43 I will barely add an instance of sepulchral decoration that I once met with among the mountains of Switzerland. It was at the village of Gersau **, which stands on the borders of the 44 41) a full detail eine vollständige ins Einzelne gehende Beschreibung. 42) he gives a casual picture of filial piety er erzählt beiläufig einen Zug kindlicher Liebe. berühmter deutscher und Theaterdichter, Von seinen Bühnen 43) August Wilhelm Iffland (1759-1814), Schauspieler und zugleich verdienter Dramaturg Director der königlichen Schauspiele in Berlin. stücken sind die bekanntesten: Verbrechen aus Ehrsucht; die Jäger; die Hagestolzen; die Reise nach der Stadt, u. a. m. 44) Gersau, am Südfusse des Rigi und am Vierwaldstättersee; bildete vier Jahrhunderte eine selbstständige, unabhängige Republik (die kleinste in Europa, von kaum 1 Quadratstunde, mit etwa 1000 Einwohnern), die unter den Segnungen des langen Friedens zu grossem Wohlstande emporblühte, bis Napoleon 1798 den Freistaat aufhob und dem Kanton Schwyz einverleibte. Lake of Lucern, at the foot of Mount Rigi. It was once the capital of a miniature republic, shut up between the Alps and the Lake, and accessible on the land side only by footpaths. The whole force of the Republic did not exceed six hundred fighting men; and a few miles of circumference, scooped out as it were from the bosom of the mountains, comprised its territory. The village of Gersau seemed separated from the rest of the world, and retained the golden simplicity of a purer age. It had a small church, with a burying-ground adjoining. At the heads of the graves were placed crosses of wood or iron. On some were affixed miniatures, rudely executed, but evidently attempts at likenesses of the deceased. On the crosses were hung chaplets of flowers, some withering, others fresh, as if occasionally renewed. I paused with interest at this scene; I felt that I was at the source of poetical description, for these were the beautiful but unaffected offerings of the heart which poets are fain to record. In a gayer and more populous place, I should have suspected them to have been suggested by factious sentiment, derived from books; but the good people of Gersau knew little of books; there was not a novel nor a love poem in the village; and I question whether any peasant of the place dreamt, while he was twining a fresh chaplet for the grave of his mistress, that he was fulfilling one of the most fanciful 45 rites of poetical devotion, and that he was practically a poet. THE INN KITCHEN. Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn? Falstaff1. DURING a journey that I once made through the Netherlands, I had arrived one evening at the Pomme d'Or, the principal inn of a small Flemish village. It was after the hour of the table d'hôte, so that I was obliged to make a solitary supper from the relics of its ampler board. The weather was chilly: I was seated alone in one end of a great gloomy dining-room, and 45) fanciful phantasiereich. 1) Shaks pere, Henry V., Part I, Act III, Scene 3. 2) of its ampler board ihres (d. h. der table d'hôte) reichlicheren (d. h. als mein supper war) Mahles. |