The Massachusetts spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1831-1858, 1832-12-12
THE DEAD.
"To day in heaah-to-moropc in The tomb >

~ To day in heaith-to-1norTorc in The tomb"
How few there are, has been remarked
by Il forcible and impressive writer, who
read the ordinary list Of deaths, who know
any thing Of the depth of human feeling
or the intensity of human suffeilngs, which
is recorded in the simple and brief notices
which we read with so much carelessness
and so coldly, IN the newspapers. Finding
no familiar name TO arrest attention, OF
awaken sympathy. we think 10 more of the
matter, for what care we for the long, mid
! night vigils of watchful affectionate friend
shlp-the weary aching head-the afflicted
depending heart; we do not feel the pain
the langulshing sufferer has experienced
and we know nothing of the agony which
exhausted his frame and wore out his wea.
ry nature nor care we for the spirit which
has fed its frail tenement, and uttered its
last, final, gasping farewell. We know
nothing OF the heart burning anguish which
is felt, or the bot burning tears which gusi
out in the agony of friendship, from bosoms
swollen and bursting with an excess Of
passionate grief We know nothing of the
bitterness of parting, Of the strength Of af-
fections which have been torn asunder-oi
the hopelessness of the first food of tears
of the depth of pIotracted sufferng--or
of the intensity of Affections which real
friends have been called upon TO suffer and
endure.
1t is melancholy, though instructive
consideration, that the tendency of every
thing is 10 decay; that the happiest pros
poets and brightest visions of future bliss
are but delusive fances, which, become ex-
tingnished when they shine ont mGst vivid
ly, and give the strongest evidence OF per
manent duration. Hopes which were an.
gels in their BIRTH" became from their init
macy and close conf, ction with human
frailty and decay but things Of this earth !;
and thus it is, that those dear objects, upon
which we have ldvshed most fattering
hopes of future happiness and bliss, are re-
moved from us before we are conscious of
palsying illness, which quenched the spirits
and laid them low. We grieve that they
are taken so suddenly, that they could
not have been spared little longer; then
we could have appreciated their worth, re-
turned their manifold kindnesses, and grad
unliy prepared ourselves for that event,
which from its sudden occurrence, humans
our resolution and prostrates us in the dus.
ly the sternness and severity of the blow.
There is another thought, but nevertheless
true one, that the more friendships we
form, the more attachments we make. the
more tender and endearing connections we
weave around us, and invest ourselves with.
-. -. this world, the more grief and suffering
we shall be caiie1a :" endure. A time will
come when all earthly attachments .nlst be
severed, and the more devoted 10 connec-
hons, the more agonlZng and severe will
be the struggle which separates us and
tears US away from among them.
1t may be that Stoic's life is productive
eventually Of less pain ard suffering than
that individual endufes, who possesses more
tender senslhiliiy, and is alive &c the gen.
erous impulse of nature and the finest feel
lngs of the human heart; it may be so, but
yet his cold enjeyments and benunbed sym.
pathles afford hun but poor comfort, when
most he needs the sympathy, the sustaining
hand and dpholding arm of ur,seut and en-.
during friendship. Life would not be worth
possessing, if this polar star did not ilumin.
ate its dark paths, and throw around its
dreariness some evidence of sympa hetc
love for each other, and though separation
when it comes crush the heart and teal
asunde. its very 6bres yet how eagerly we
taste of its delicious sweets, and exult in
the participation of its delirious enioyments
THE DEPARTED. The unusual number of sud
den deaths during the past season, has put fal
from US many of our most gifted and beautiful
The blast Of winter has been death TO them
They heard its hollow roar and shuddered-and
died. Never again shall they open their ewes
on an earthly spring. When we rove along the
blooming fields, go into the flower garden
after the sun has gone down, TO inhale its eve
ming fragrance some who once walked with
us there, shall not be seen at our side The
atmosphere in which they once stood shall
not be lighted with their beauty it shall be
voiceess, and the space, in which we might
once have embraced them, shall be thin air
They shall be resting beneath the clods Of the
valley-or perhaps on the summer CLOUDS Of
heavenly glory-while we, in our lonely walks
| shall have no communons with them, but By
I the chain Of memory which reaches backward
I TO what they were, or the asplrings of faith
reaching upward to what they may be now. II
is good TO think of the dead. They only az;
I the wise they have tasted the bitterness O
death-and they too have inhaled tho breath o
another existence. knowledge, higher thar
mortal life can attain, is theirs-and, perhaps
love too, that might overbaance the accumu
| lated oceans of human affection. They are. a
will, higher than the topmost or outermost star
! They may stand where the First Great Caus,
swept the creation and compounded its wonder
| full energies. The dead only know what lif,
is-what time Island what eternity shall be
We may say, farewell to the departed-but W,
should not forget them. Forget tho living
rather than the dead They are the nobility .
a better world. They may be spirits of light
ard have power to sweep their unseen circles
of protection around our path. They may b,
those whose gentle arms shall sustain our soul.
when they are struggling in more than infan
tile weakness, into another mode of being
! Forget not the last looks-the adeus-the vir
tues of the dead and let all their fralties res
aforementioned. Let not our thoughts wande
from them, while we listen to the warning
voice of heaven that speaks in their exit. The
Messenger of Death shall ere long pronounc,
our names-and we too, must go the way of al
the earthly. Y. Weekly Messenger.
ONLY ONE SPUR.
Butler, in his Hudibras, said great ma
| ny witty, and some useful things; his anus
ing discovery that if one side vi a horse bt
| anurra1 tho othar ,,,,ll boop IN of tie nm,