Literary cadet and Rhode-Island statesman. [volume] (Providence, R.I.) 1827-1829, 1828-07-23
buried in .he grave we had just left

buried in .he grave we had just leh.
"From infancy" said the old man,
"that child had clung to my affections;
and when kindred sunk TO tic tomb,
wealth wasted, and friends grew cool,
she swept from my mind the cloud Of
discontent-her love supported all -
When, day after day, l crept TO the bed
in which sickness had stretched, and
where death watched his prey, l have
felt that the hour Of separation was nigh,
yet | hoped: not for life; no, that was
vain-I hoped that there was not enough
Of strength in my frame to bear her loss,
and that | should sink with her, and
know but one pang Of deaths bitter
ness.
But few mornings since, sat be-
side her-listened with fondness to her
voice-feeble indeed. but to fathers
ears, more dear, more loved, even for
its sepulchral tones. Her arms had
been thrown round my neck-l pressed
her closely to my heart, and for one mo-
ment a beam Of JOY struck upon my
mind. l raised myself to press kiss
upon her forehead-'twas cold and white
as this polished marble-her eye was
fixed in death. They have buried her
in that grave-round which walk daily,
seeking therein the only refuge which is
left for my mise-ies."
As we rose from the tomb on which
we had been sitting, and moved towards
the gate, the old man looked back upon
the grave ofhis daughter. An agonizing
feeling changed his visage but he gave
it no utterance. We passed on the
street, and were about to separate--l
extended my hand, in token of my SYM
patby with the childless and friendless
stranger. He grasped it firmly-and a
tear from fountain long deemed arid,
fell upon the symbols Of our pledged
sympathy.
"You know not" said the old man,
chow all absorbing and long endearing
is the love Of father for the deserving
daughter! Time, that quenches other
fires in his heart, purifes and strength
ems that affection"
"I have" continued he, "in moments
of solitude, tried to sound the sources Of
this feeling-not peculiar, though strong
in my bosom; but in contemplating the
effect, the causes seemed to evade me:
it is surely all that we dream of purity in
earthly love, aud all that Imagination
paints of faith can promise in higher and
hoicr intercourse. The father sees his
face reflected in softer and gentIer forms,
in his infant daughter; her expanding
mind catches its Impressions from his
experience; in JOY her participation
doubles his delight; in sorrow, her SYM
pathies and endearing fondncss mitigate
the pang. prosperity, she adorns; in
adversely, with kindly ministration, she
ligbtons, by sharing the burthen; in the
cold and bitter cup of poverty, she min
giles the ingredients of willing obedience
and growing love.
Such was mine-and looked, when
desires ceased and strength failed, to
have passed away from life without a
groan, pllowing my palsied head upon a
daughters bosom.
"But no-no; the blast that scattered
branch and fruit, spent its force upon
the upholding prop; and now the scathed
| trunk, barren and lsafcss, totters at
every breeze, lonely, profitless and un-
seemly."
The old man again shook my hand
with convulsive grasp, and left me. l
looked upon the grave of the daughter,
and turned to gaze upon the father, as
he moved slowly from me-and l felt
that, for the mornings experience, for
the powers Of sympathy with the smitten
and the lonely, it was "good for me that
! | had been afflicted"