Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1841-07-29
From the New World.
From the New World
The Meeting of the Dead;
OR THE STUDENTS DREAM.
BY IA NJ Z 3 Al. RIC II.

AT the placid hour of midnight, while
stars were holding their silent course il
heaven, pale student, of restless, tho't-
ful mind, wandered to village church
yard IN the peaceful valley OF the Con
necicut, and reclining on the greensward
beneath young locust, whose branches
sheltered him from the falling dew,
the deep, calm silence Of nature. An
indie latlgable searcher after the unaliain,
able, his thoughts were ever out on
weary rambles seeking the good which
is never found lover Of eternal truth
anJ beauty in pursuit Of the ideal, dashed
continually by conflicting currents upon
the cold rocks of reality. The place
where he reclined was formerly an
Indian battle-ground, but its original
owners long since disappeared from the
earth, and for more than century it has
been used for Christian cemetery by
the inhabitants Of the little village that
hes beside it in the valley. A madness
OF melancholy preyed upon the Students
mind; vainly had he hoped to find men
tai repose in the church-yard slillnes :;
bewildered by Wild and incohereRl tho'ts,
thus he soiloquised:
"In language moro audible than speech
these simple memorials Of the humble
dead admonish me Of my lttleness, and
hold up, as it were, to ridicue, the vain
pursuit Of world wisdom and glory. Al
passions and desires have here found res
~ dul! obscurity /; TO such rest and OBJ
security are the living ever rapidly tend
ing. What is life ? every day whole
squadrons Of the worlds great army are
swept away like sand-clouds TO the silent
land they depart forever, leaving no
footprints on the earth. In the grand
march thousands are continually falling
yet the pathway remains unobs,ructed.
"A rampant breach il every day,
Which many mortals are stormng,
Fall IA The gap who may,
OF the slain no heap is forming
"S'ill returns to me the question, what
Is life! man is born, he enters upon the
world-siage, aud looking round him with
wonder and delight on the decorations Of
his playhouse, ITS many dazzling lights
aud beautiful colors, its vast blue dome,
speedily, his little part m the pantom,ne
being finished, he departs, led off by
death. io return not. Brief his being !
yet real and substantial; through death
be cutters upon new Pxislcnce-a dream
HE ~ winch time " not-a clear spiri,
with desires obrdlrnt 10 his will. he
siands on the rIng oi eternity and beholds
human generations from alar roll away
like yapor clouds. Delights, of which
~ hIs wprld.beIug faint Inlimalions were
gwen by muiernal nature, in the night
wmd sIghlng through wthered sedge, in
the deep moan Of The sea-in the peace
ful tones ol distant sabbath bells--he now,
~ that dr""n-liie enjoys in full posses
sim
Thus soliloquised The student, ill per-
picked and wearird with mystical illn- I
slons and visionary thong hts, sleep weigh
ed dawn his eyel,ds, and before him,
stand my ~ the middle or the church.
yard. appeared an angel of still, sweet,
.ouu'e nance with folded wings. "Whom
eek y ou here'" asked The angel. with
enile vuice. "Ths dead" replied The
iudun'. 81 would sec al who ~.
lun,be ring here around me" Then ih,