Burying One's Dead.

Bruce Herald, Volume x, Issue 957, 13 November 1877, Page 3

B urying One's Dead.

It has tp be done, hoWe^er painful Jt' "may be j t^e/(hjqga i pf pne'sjpye die and depart, and all thiat is I left vs -to dp. is^ to bury them deep, plant flovjers on the epot where they lie, anid L go QU'Ojtir way poorer by bo much,, out with a, life still to lead and a future still tp^fdfilV There is not one among«t ■us who has not to bury his dead. From the .child's belief in the | omnipotence of his' parents to .the* man's in the absolute perfection 6f l»s beloved : from .:the-i rejection of the jTairy* talpg, # tr^e a» gQspel ? tQtfe

critical examination of historical legends, which once were as exact as 'Hansard;' we all have to 'pass through states of faith »nd feeling which time and future know, ledge prove to be fullaciousi They die, and must be. buried, from their; , ashes gometimes rising the new growth of a higher and" loftier J truth, if- sometimes that heart sickness which comes from disappointment; and the inability {to. make the beat of t;hei,tjhingß;.which remain vto.ua after Knowjedge ha^ Tobhed , ; us v p^- our illusions,* chttraeteristid.of^the '"tender, .and the (tenacip,us. We? have, to bury our hopes as we have tp^bury pur loves^ and forget tbe deeire wbich i once made the whole charms of. life for iUs, to the.i attainment of which we once bent all our energies; rb Ton its fulfilment was 'centred : all our dreams ■/ ; %-'';U..-'-'\ J „Of what godd td Sit down by the way;- --! and moilfn^ througbr' a' lifetime, watching the pale ghost of a dead hope, it he ;da>k shadow, p}' a|liv.ing; sorrpw?^ .be.tteivto.^i^iHeigr^ve^^^^ deluiivb dream once,/an>dLfor rt ever, .and then go?on in "the oldl way.i turning; up the torn, ends and placing together the* -broken fragments:j.". v X'wj'j ''■: \;\ '[it^ v; H I '. It is all ttat you can do ;; and to bury yoiir mistaXfcn lovd^is a fe]r better way of wisdom;' fat more likely use.pf^reason; than ; Jp' follow Goldsmith's ■ad vice, andi b ecause you, . have stooped to .folly. . turn your- xiwn; 'face jto the wall. No ; kill your folly and bury it as a dead thing which has no ghost; -but do "■ you ; live*to be'b^tterj'and to be; oi^BUch' use/to the Wprld as^God has] granted' 'you the ■niea'hs pf : r. ; . ■'."'.".."..' "' . fkiths : pf early yputh;haye,to go'.■:•aolsvn>.rwith. :^he^Tes.t; ; .•.wh.ile i .a;. eunset was a thing ;'and not only an appearance '; before we 'krie^ofthe "-strugglefop existence," or " the survival of the fittest; j" and while' all nature Was one great field p]P;jnt(BniiHnal. : jiyjght for man; and .- ; ' tbe . harmpnip,Uß iptercprnmunion of its member?, we believed .on.ly.iri.the; jaw of kind- . ness.and the manifestation of virtue. That a benevolent and white-haired old gentlemani with a Bleek face and a caressing Hap, who patted our curly -bead and gave us sixpiende iii (/the shbiild^be the; inbar- ' nation of hu'mbu'g^Vwifch : an under— current of fact going, exactly cpntrary to the surface' now ,pf. seeming, and a. heart as. hard as bisiplump white hand was soft, was a problemiia social algebra next to impos^sible for'us to understand or accept. .

; Since then, we have : she'd our faith 'in individual man many /times — if still retairir j ri g it in co 1 1 e c ti v e ; H,u m an i ty —r 6ac,h ti m c with pain arid death i .But it , had toV.be done r and,the : dead;;buried.and;p,ut v out ; of sight;, if we.would not remain a child. to tbe end and? a fool always. -Sothetitnea' the struggle was hard enough, and "mine own familiar" had to be slain pf intent rßther than let tp die in the course of nature. The friend on whose probity. wa. thought we could rely as on tp-mor,row's a'unshine, suddenly proves himself slippery and uo— trußtw6rthyV" What can we ; do: bub .kill our love for him there on the sppt—^apd bury it afterwards so deep that we shall never care to uncover it agaiu ? We had loved an idea, a simulacrum, a thing nonexisting outside pur own imaginations; and we' must'deal with- this, too, as ' yrith our Qthec eidolA—burj it among pur 'deaci;'^' . ■' ; "-- i ■'- ■■'^■• ; ■->•■<■ ■■'"■'"\ x{ -'y

The various illusions pjf life go .pneby one to their graves ;" and we are left standing alone in the desert, where; .pn;ce we had been Eden, eurrounded by fair* facedvangels and 'sweet -voiced ; seraphim. We find that poetry, though beautiful iß ; n6t science^which is true j and that the poetic faculty of viewing life gets more' praise from the hearer than it gives peace to 'the tbiaker ; that ? dreams of human perfectibility en masse, and human perfection in particulars, "are not the ground-work on which 'to-found a man's active doings among his fellows ; and that beliefs which v have no basis on. "facia aria at the^est ..J ut dpul|tful^ companions, and at the wprst deceitful and perilous guides for those who wish to the truth, :and, when found, hold fast by her mantle, We, have to port with o'urrnent'al illusions and bury them deep, just !as we have to part, with the idealisation of youthful memory, if by chance brought' face to 1 face with . the stjij jivin» : I reality. . , , , . • " ■'""'- - We bupy. our health,; pur, youih, and our strength ; and we ouly come to grief j when we try to resuacitate the deadend forget, the chain pf years .that we have i forged between them, and now.,. iTbe long walk, the day's fcun ting, "the"' night's dance, thecold bath, and the balf'hoUr'sj swim, the imprudent' foodi arid the recki lees je^poßure.tp /the sun and the rain, the snow — all these .things .are ; as meiuorieß only, never again tp bs living faeta; And why riot bury the remembrance of past pains; of post enmitiee, of the quari'el that : been verbally made up, the offence once offered and since atoned for ? ■ ...Spme .... people never .bury these things. _ Th^y say tha,fc they forgive, but they keep > thpir qead diupieaeiire, ds the dwarfs kept Rogered's pretty body, with a glasß window in the. ppffi[ri r by -which they , cptticj^ lop^ iq and : watch: pepUwhen^ ever; ttiey; chose. No j -'.tlieVe U i no good in tha_t, Coffins with glues windows in them are a mistake. L«t us bury the dead things of life deep in food soil, .plant flowers on "them,-- so that the place where : they lie shall not be barren nor dia:.£gure<ii^na&,&9 each mistake, .each sad gs/neipierice, a- means for future good and trutih^ and beauty j and go on— always pn-rtill we ebme tp tbelerid> when we ourselves sjjall be ampng the dead, and buried, some., of us rumaiuing as beautiful reniembrance?;" ever 'enshrmed "in honour anpl;deligh|. ; if^Bpme of us stand out in the backward vista, as but sprrbwj ful mistakes,, l^ke blind cretvturcswboJ j have missed their way ; or. cbil^rtn; o,f sorro w, brought up q,ndejp^ the hard tutelage i of plciia. an<J never -suffered to eaea^pe T the ; hand ; oi\. that stern t eacher, r ihfti «\iel pjonitort <