The Illinois free trader. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1840-1841, 1840-11-27
NUMBER %.

as may well make us blush at the AFRO.
! gance of our pretensions. Notwi,hstand-
ing the dsuse and neglect Of this remnant
of the fine feeling Of the ahcients, among
the greater part Of the nations of Chris.
tendon, still there are places where it Is
preserved in its primitive and hallowed
purity. A traveller assures us, that a,ei
the desperate struggle between the French
armies and the Tyrolese peasantry, y hen
the former were defeated in their murder.
Gus attempts 10 penetrate the mountain
Businesses Of the south Of Austria, not one
Of the Tyrolesc who fell, was buried ON
the field, but, after the strife Of death WIS
over, was borne by his friends to his
own native village. in the church yard Of
which, the little green mounds, planted
with flowers, and freed from weeds by
the pioas care Of survivors, still show tbs
number of those that persisted in that con-
illct OF liberty. In the Crimea, in Nj
phon, on the southern shores Of the Me.
diterranean, among the Moors, and in
China, is still observed the beautiful Gus
tom Of planting and stewing flowers over
the dead; custom SO affecting and SO
full OF refined taste, that it ought never to
be suffered TO fall into oblivion, by those
who make the slightest pretences to civil.
lizaton. In Wales, when young wom-
an dies, she is attended to the grave by
her virgin companions, each one bearing
flowers, which. after she is deposited in
her last abode, are sprinkled over the
coffin. Over the monument of Klop-
stock, the impassioned author OF the
messiah" flowers are yearly s,rewn,
and lime tree there, ever waves its
spreading branches. In that populous
city of the dead, the Pere La Chaise of
the French capital, the cypress, the rose.
and the willow are beautifully blended;
and on All-souls-day; those who have
friends buried there, are in the custom Of
visiting the place; bearing garlands Of
wild flowers and evergreens informing
ling, to place upon the graves. The cpl
taph of the founder Of Grecian Tragedy,
the celebrated Sophoclcs, written by SIM
onides, proves that such custom Of hon.
oring the illus,rious dead, then existed
"Wind, gentle evergreen, to form shade, $3.50
Around the tomb where Sophocles is laid,
Sweet ivy, wind thy boughs and intertwine
With blushing roses, and the clustering vino
So shall thy lasting leaves, with beauty hung,
Prove fit emblem Of the lays he sung ai
There can scarcely be imagined more
delightful place than that valley of unfad-
ing green, and everlasting flowers, where
Sadi the royal Persian poet is en,ombed.
Hafix, OF the same nation, and scarcely
less renowned as poet, planted with his
own hands the cypress under which he
directed his body to be entoinbetl, and
over which, for ages, his enthusiastic al.
mirers and countryfilen scattered roses,
and hung chaplels of flowers. There il
no place that awakens more deep and
sadly pleasing emotions, than TO tread the
ground where those we once loved, rest
forever from their sorrows and their cares:
Every thing disagreeable and repnlsivc,
i'll such quiet scene, ough. to be careful.
ly avoided; and every thing should be
introduced which can have ,endency TO
soften the passions, and soothe and tran.
quilize the feelings. Yet how often d.
we, in the sleeping place of the dead, Ia
the church-yards Of both city and couM
try, find The graves trampled upon by The
most disgusting of brutes: cold stone
perhaps, 10 tell who sleeps below |, butn
flowers are seen to picture, by their TO-
newal, the cheering hope Of resurre,.
ton; no evergreen to shadow forth the
immortality Of the dead. 10 the con-
templative mind, there is something pleas
ing in the idea of sleeping the ,ireamlcss
sleep, surrounded by those whom We
loved while living, and beneath the turf
made radiant by the unsullied blossoms
of Spring. TO us, there is another in
teresting view Of the subject and which
is so quantity and beautifully expressed
by Osborne ale that lieth under The
herse Of heavenne, is convertible into
sweic horbcs and flowers, that maye rest
in bosoms tina. wolde shrink from the
ugly bugs which may be found crawling
in the magniticentto tomb Of Henry the VII"
The same though, occurs in all "Address
to the Mummy" by later author: ~
| 10 no, like thee would remain, Is s.tg
But DER the earth my ashes strcw
And IN some rising bed regain %7s
Tie freshness that my cAilihcod kntae.' 'soN9S
For ourselves, much rather had we sleep
where the moonbeams would convert insd
4 diamonds the dewdrons cati,ey3n6 ~, IN