directs us to pray for a mind, which considers death as a consummation most anxiously to be wished. "Were our eyes,” said Madame de Staël, on the death of her father, "permitted to take a clear view of the opposite shore, who would remain on this desolate coast?" Porphyry says of the Brachmans, that they looked for nothing so eagerly as this consummation; considering life in the light of a pilgrimagea:—and Herodotus and Strabo speak of nations, who mourned at the birth of an infant, and rejoiced at the prospect of death. Lucan informs us, that the Celts esteemed it a passage to long life; in consequence of which, they eagerly sought it in battle. Valerius Maximus even assures us, that the Gauls were so confident of immortality, that they not unfrequently lent money, to be paid apud inferos. In Greece death was certainly dreaded; but it was nevertheless always esteemed a fortunate event: hence that mother was called pre-eminently happy, who, having been drawn to the temple of Juno, by her two sons, prayed the goddess to reward them for that act of filial piety, and found, at the end of the sacrifice, that they had died in the temple, after falling into a soft and quiet slumber. Diodorus relates, that when Dionysius the elder took Rheggio, he resolved to make an example of the governor, for having defended the city with great pertinacity. Previous to the punishment, he designed for him,- desirous of aggravating a It is proper for a woman, after her husband's death, to burn herself in the fire with his corpse. Every woman, who thus burns herself, shall remain in paradise with her husband three score and fifty lacks of years by destiny. Code of Gentoo Laws, p. 286, 4to. b Lib. v. c. 4; also Pomp. Mela, lib. ii. c. i. The Gades of Spain sang hymns in honour of Death, and erected altars to old age. Philost. in Vit. Apollon. Numa forbade all mourning for infants. Plut. * Lib. ii. The black Jezides, a species of half Mussulmen and half Christians, in the same manner. Many Christians believe, that heaven gives an early death to its favourites: and the joy that ought to engage the mind, in death, was typified by the Grecian fable of the "swan." his sufferings, he told him, that he had, on the yesterday, put his son and his kindred to death. The tyrant was, however, much disappointed: for the governor, whose name was Phyton, so far from exhibiting any affliction on that account, exclaimed, "then they are by one day happier than myself." The Thracians rejoiced at a burial, which they esteemed a road to beatitude; and therefore indulged in all manner of sports and pleasures. In Ireland a death is still said to be a source of joy and amusement; while the natives of Congo esteem it a transition from toil to rest; from anxiety to happiness. The Wahabee Arabs regard it impious to mourn for the dead; "that is," say they, "for those, who are with Mahomet in Paradise." The Javanese make several feasts upon the decease of their friends and relatives. One of these banquets is upon the day of the decease; another on the third day; then on the seventh; a fourth on the fortieth day; a fifth on the hundreth; and the last on the thousandth. This custom is almost universal in Java". The Banyans of Hindostan have a similar practice. They have also a maxim, that it is better to sit still than to walk; better to sleep than to wake; better to die than to sleep. In the province of Biscay, too, great rejoicings are made at the death of persons, who die before the age of maturity. They are taken uncovered to the grave; white roses are put upon their heads; there is a band of music; and the attendants signify their joy, at what they call the happiness of innocence. Oh weep not for him;—'tis unkindness to weep; No more of fatigue or endurance it knows ; O weep not-oh break not-its gentle repose.-Neele. Cyrus, on the bed of death, desired the Persians to rejoice a Raffles' History of Java, vol. i. p. 327, 4to. b Ovington's Voyage to Surat, p. 340. at his funeral; and not to lament, as if he were really dead. And Dr. Hunter, a few moments before his decease, said to a friend, who attended him, " If I had strength to hold a pen, I would write how easy and how pleasant a thing it is to die!" Tasso, too, when informed by his friend and physician, Rinaldini, that he had no hopes of his recovery, gratefully exclaimed, “Oh God! I thank thee, that thou art pleased to bring me safe into port, after so long a storm." Walking, some time since, in the church-yard of old St. Pancras, to muse among the tombs and monuments, I saw the countenance of one, engraved upon his stone. On looking at the inscription, I found it to be that of TIBERIUS CAVALLO, author of many treatises on magnetism, aerostation, electricity, the nature and properties of air, and other subjects of natural philosophy. He was born in Naples, (1749); and died in London (1809). I never saw this excellent man but once :— but that was a highly interesting once. "Sir," said he, at parting, “remember what a man, near sixty, tells you. The world,—se ipso,—has little or nothing to chain the sojourn of men. The sooner most of them are out of it the better. We all came into it for something: we shall all go out of it for more." Men creep insensibly into age; and in the progress of transition become familiarized with its aspects and inconveniences. But death, for the most part, is as much a stranger to age, as. it is to youth. In fact, it is of no more use for an old man to think of death, than a young one :--for death answers no premature questions. Both, therefore, ought to live in a manner, that he may be greeted with hospitality, whenever he does come. Disease, injuries, and misfortunes, however, diminish the fear of death by gradations, insensible to him, who, unconscious of the mind's hope, merely beholds the body verging to its last ebb. Some esteem death a leap in the dark;-others as having no real essence, being the mere privation of earthly life :some as a season, in which all of life and of magnificence fade away-and others as the commencement of that existence, in which, by intuition, we shall acquire a knowledge of all beautiful things. It is early association, that hides the advantages of death. For glorious, doubtless, are the secrets, we shall hear; and the scenes that we shall witness; when death has shut the gates of life, and opened the portals of eternity. If this is credulity, it is a credulity far more valuable, I think, than all that some men might esteem the truth. FUTURITY. SOME time since, being at the British Museum, I accidentally saw, lying before me, a disputation between the body and the soul, in French, (of the 13th century), beginning thus: Si come ieo ieu en mon lit, Ky fuist dampne". On returning home my eyes were attracted by a balloon, which glided over the fields and came down, with those, who had sailed under it, within three fields of my house. The gas had begun to escape, and the aeronauts thought proper to descend. I never see a balloon, with aeronauts, but my mind pictures the removal of Seth, the flight of Elijah, and the transfiguration of Christ. I then meditate on the escape of the soul; and sometimes terminate my contemplations with the flight (downward) of Raphael between worlds and worlds; or the flight (upward) of Satan, Through the dark realms of Chaos and old Night. Arundell MSS., No. 288. Lorenzo de Medici said to the excellent Abbot Marianoa, "He is dead to this life, who has no hopes of another." And I think he, in a great part, is so. It was the comparative insignificance of ourselves, however, when placed in comparison with the mighty whole, which first induced Lord Byron to imagine, that our pretensions to immortality might be overrated. With the Eternal Being, as nothing is small, nothing is great. Rousseau was, therefore, doubtless, in the right, when he asserted", that the superficial pretenders to wisdom, in prolonging our views to the end of this life, and no farther, have done a permanent injury to mankind. "We are born with the desire and means of improving ourselves," said Pascal; “and this is a proof of the change to which we are destined." A calm and steady purpose, on which to fix the intellectual eye, is necessary to a victory over sorrow; as, in the midst of torment, there is always relief from bodily exercise. Plunged in action, we feel as if we had neither power nor time to die. Then again come sorrow and pain. Death looks us in the face;-hope quickens ; The triumph and the trance begin, And all the phoenix spirit burns within ". When a subject is doubtful, it is, for the most part, wise to incline towards that, which is the least difficult to imagine. Some painters can delineate small portraits with great success, but not large ones. In the same manner, some minds can expand to certain points; at which they feel compelled to stop. No conception farther! They perceive one miracle, as it were, but cannot imagine two. They exist. What is that but a miracle? at least a mystery. Stretch the point farther, |