Du Buque visitor. [volume] (Dubuque, Lead Mines, Wisconsin Territory) 1836-1837, 1836-08-03

Ioi death come home to the heart, and
1.-THE grave gives risetoa thousand vague
land gloomy apprehensions. The liv-
ing visit its precincts with reluctance,
land even Affection and Love perform
their last offices to its ever4increasinp
habltants with ill-dcsned feelings 81
dread.
- e Should taot t be SO. here should
mot be SO much of responsiveness and
Igioom aboutall that is visible Of death.
l1t should not be contemplated with
fsucfintense and agonizing emotions, as
az its knell were the summons to moth
Iingness and oblivion. For why should
an event so common. so certain. and
wlthal 50 near, yet seem to usso strange
and terrible that we are ready to ex-
claim with our first parent, when the
spectacle first burst upon his eyes
"Bnt have seen Death!--Is this the way
4 must return to native dust! O SIGHT
Ofterror foul and ugly to behold!
! Horrid to thlnk--how horrible to feel!',
For this great foe of humanity is ever
busy on our track. Every day we live,
the work of dissolution and decay is go
ing on around us. Atevery step which
we take along the pathway of life, the
dust OF preceding generations is cling
ling to our feet. We move amid the
emblems and elements and operations
lof Death. No person is secure-no
1place is sacred from the approach ofthc
Great Destroyer. None are exempt
from his dominion none canelude his
grasp. He breaks the circle of pleas
lure and dispels the dreams ofambition.
He enters alike the palace and the. cot
Itage, the bower Of innocence and the
abode Of infamy. The frame where
Idwclls angelic intellect and genius dis
solves at his touch-the form of beauty
sinks back to dust. Thelipof eloquence
becomes cold-the eye Of inspiration
dim; the heart where dwells each fine
affection ceases to beat, and the spirit,
touched to immortal issues is laid to
its last repose. In fine, all creatures,
times and places are alike the Object
seasons !: and scenes of Deaths greA Ial.
iInistal. 4. .=.s Il :
And shall all these frequent nantes
tations be each cause of secret disqui-
etudc and gloomy forcboding? Shall
they be regarded not as ordinary oc-
currences, but as mysterious and por-
tcntous phenomena? mot as mere tram
sitions-changes, as that Of chrysalis,
for higher and purer atmosphere and
a more perfect and beautiful forn,-bst
as an irredeemablc decay, total de-
struction? Death, that great event to
which all other events are tending, is
not an annihilation--not an everlasting
sleep. The grave is not an eternalrest-
ing-placc. We do not reclinc upon the
bosom Of earth as those who rise no
more, but in the hope Of a more glori-
Gus dawn:
$50 sinks the day-star in the ocean-bed,
And yet anon repairs his dropping head,
And tricks his beams, & with new-spangled eye
Flames OIL the forehead Of the morning sky"
NATURE. Sec yonder child, begin
ming life, with streams Of enjoyment
comingin atevery sense. Heis SO form
ed that every thing he has to do is
source Of delight. He has an eye; and
God has contrivcd it most ingeniously,
tobe the means by which pleasure comes
in every moment to him. He has an
ear, SO intricatcly formed that no anato-
mist or physiologist has yet been able
to understand its mysteries. God has
so planned it that he drinks in with de-
light the sounds that float around him.
How many times, and in how many
ways, does he find enjoyment by its
instrumentality. The tones Of CONVEX
sation--thc evening song Of his moth
hum Of the insects noise
IF the storm the rumbling Of distant
.hande., fer how many different but + I.
delightful emotions has the Creator pro-
'ided. So with all the other senses; !,
md after you have examined IN this
way, the whole structure and mind 81
his being, follow him out to; sum-
ner's walk, and see how BENEVOLENT t
;reator pours upon him, from all thel
cenery II nature around, an almost o. .
'erwhelming tide Of delight. God !
miles upon him in the aspect ofs the :
'lue heavens lin the yerdure of the
leldsin the baImy breath Of air upon !
IS chez and in the very powers and !
acultics themselves, which he has 80 !.
DrIned, that every motion Is delight, :
nd every pulsation is thrill 5of plea 4
ure; Such q srevelation does nature III