Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Mass.) 1828-1830, 1828-08-19
MORAL.
FOR the LANCASTER GAZETTE.

MEssRs. EDIToRs-The following observations
were published some time since in distant paper
You will crafty the author by re-printing them.
Superiority Of Christianity Over Human
Philosophy as to its Consultations on the Decth
! of Friends
There is nothing in which the triumph Of
Christianity is more complete than in the
consultations it affords US on the death of
our friends. / make this very common re-
mark now, for the sake Of comparing two
letters of condolence-one from Sulpitius
to Cicero on the death of his daughter, and
the other from DR.. Johnson and l know
not that there are any where else two com
positions, in which the contrast Of the PHI
losopher and the Christian is stronger or
more gratifying. The first, that of Sui
lpitius, is marked, indeed, throughout with an
admirable spirit oftenderness and sympathy :
but this spirit has sought in vain for any fit
refuge for his friends grief. He reminds
him how many other things, equally dear as
children, were forever lost to them of the
blessings of free government, their hon.
ours and dignities forever gone. Amid. this
general wreck of all that the patriot vener-
ated, of what consequence (he asks) is the
loss of all that the parent loved publick
calamity had hardened the heart; and where
now was the room for the feelings Of private
suffering He goes on then to speak of
other countries, and ofthe consolation which
cries loudly from the ruins of antiquity.
Returning lately" he says, g from Asia, I
looked upon the cities which surrounded my
vessel: behind me was Egina, and before
me Megara the Piraeus, and Cornith, on
my right hand and on my left-places which
formerly were great and Aourishing, but now
lay PROSTATE and destroyed in my view !;
and I could not help thinking, can we men
complain, when our natural term Of life is
so much shorter, if any one of our number
should die, when from one spot we can see
so many ruins !" He then reminds his
friend, that he is still Cicero-the counsels
and advice he had given to others were now
needed for himself, and concludes with tell
ing him, that the hand of time softens every
grief, and that the same constancy and firm
ness, which had marked his prosperous,
should now be apparent in his adverse, for
tune.
This then is all the Philosopher could say,
call ones thoughts from deceased daugh-
ter to a bleeding country-summon the ruins
of " olden time" to cast, by the awful mag
nifcence of their decay, darker gloom over
! the mind-and awaken vain confidence in
the sufferers own firmness!
In Boswell's Johnson there is letter to
Mr.. Ephinston on the death of his mother,
which is well worth an attentive reading.
He had received the account of her death
with tears: "But tears" he says, care
neither to you nor me Of any further use,
when once the tribute of nature has been
paid. The business of life summons us
away from useless grief, and calls US to the
exercise of those virtues, Of which we are
lamenting the deprivation. The greatest
benefit which one friend can confer upon
another, is to guard, and excite, and elevate
his virtues. This your mother will still
perform if you diligently preserve the
memory of her life and her death life
useful, wise, and innocent-and death re-
Isigned, peaceful, and holy" 1t is possible
we may increase the happiness of our de-
parted friends by initiating their virtues.
This, indeed, acting as we do, under the
eye of God, is of no great importance to US,
but it is surely delightful to imagine, that
the separation is merely corporeal-that the
spirits of the departed still mingle in sooth-
ling communion with our own: and it is GER
tain that the friendship of the pure in heart
shall continue through eternity.
1t is needless to draw any further COM
iparison between these letters the one de-
irving consolation only from greater and
more intense suferings-from the present
and the past THE other, pointing to the
future-to that unseen world, where
"Adeus and farewells shall be heard no MORE"
and the lover and the friend shall again
share our affection, and increase our joy.
G.
/ ON SCANDAL.
Against SANDER there is no defence,