North Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1850-1852, 1851-04-23
DEATHS OF LITTLE CHILDREN.
BY LEIGH HUNT.

e# BY LEIGH HUNT. n O. -
A Grecian philosopher being asked why he wept
for the death Of his since the sorrow was In vain
replied, 81 weep on that account" And MS answer
became his wisdom. 1t is only for sophists to con-
tend, that we, whose eyes contain the fountains oil
tears, need never give way TO them. II would be
unw.se not to do so on some occasions. sorrow un-
locks them in her balmy moods. The first bursts
may be bitter and overwhelming but the soil on which
they paur, would be worse without them. They re-
fresh the fever of the soul-the dry misery which
parches the conntenance into burrows, and renders US
liable to our most terrible 4" flesh quakes.'
There are sorrows, it is true great that to give
them some of the ordinary vents is to run hazard
ofbeing overthrown These. must rather strength
ourselves TO resist, bow quietly and drily down,
in order to let them pass over u.s. as the traveller does
the wind of the desert But where feel that tears
would relieve u.s. it is false philosophy to deny
selves at least that first reeshmen and 1t is always
false consolation tell people that because they
not help thing, they are not TO mind it. The true
way is to let them grapple with the unavoidable sor-
row. and try to win 1t into gentleness by reasona-
BILE yielding There grefs gentle in their very
nature, that it would be than false heroism to
refuse them a tear. Of this kind the deaths of
infants. Particular circumstances may render 1t more
less advisable indulge in grief for the loss of
little child but, in general parents should be no
more advised to represS their first tears on sucn an
OCCASION than to repress their Smiles towards emu
surviving or to indulge in any other sympaty. IL Is
appeal to the same gentle tenderness: ana sucn
appeals never made in vain. The END OF tnen 10
an acquittal from the harsher bonds OF amiction-
from the tying down If the spirit to one melancuo-
ly idea.
1t is the nstsre of tears of this kind, however
strongly they may gush FORTH to run into quiet wa
ters at last We cannot easily, for the whole course
of our lives, think with pain OF any good and Kind
nersen whom we have lost. 1t is the divine nature
of their qualities to conquer pain and death Itself 10
turn the memory of them into pleasure; to survive
with placid aspect in our inaginatlons. We are
writing at this moment just opposite spot which
tha oOfO IOpV nrnS
We see from window the trees about it, aud the
church spire. The green fields lie around. The
clouds travelling over head, alternately taking
away the sunshine and restoring il. The Vernal
winds, piping of the fowery summertime are nev-
ertheess, calling mind the far distant and danger
Gus ocean, which the heart that lies in that grave had
many reasons to think Of And yet the sight OF this
spot does not give pain. So far from 1t, 1t is The
existence of that grave which doubles every charm
of the spot which links the pleasures OF our child
hood and manhood together; which puts hushIng
tenderness in the winds; and patient Joy upon the
landscape; which seems to unite heaven and earth,
mortality and Immortality the grass of the tomb and
the grass of the green field and gives more mater
nal aspect to the whole kindness of nature 1t does
not hinder gaiety itself. Happiness was what It's !
tenant through all her troubles, would have dItuSed
To dfuse happiness and to eTjoy 1t, Is not only car
rying on her wishes, but realizing her hopes; and (
gaety, freed from its only pollutions, malignty and
want of sympathy, is but child playing about the
kneea of its mother
child stand instead of virtues that have died older
Children have not exercised the voluntary offices OF
friendship; they have not chosen TO be kind and good
to us stood by US, from conscious will, in the
hour adversely. But they have shared their pleas
ures and pains with US as we'll as they could the in
terchange of good offices between has, of necessi
ty been less mingled with the troubles of the world
the arising from their death, is the only
which we can associate with their memories. These
happy thoughts that cannot die. Our loss may
always render them pensive but they will not al
ways be painful 1t is part of the benignily of Ma
that pain does not survive like pleasure, any
time, much less where the cause of it is an innocent
one. The smile will remain reflected by memory, as
the moon reflects the light upon when the has
gone into HEAVIER.
When writers like ourselves quarrel with earthly
pain 1--WE mean writers of the intentions, with
out implying, of course, anything about abilities or
otherwise they misunderstood, if they sup
posed to quarrel with pains of every This would
be idle and efiemnate. They do pretend, in
deed, that humanity might not wish, if it could, to
be entirely free from pain; for it endeavors, at all
times to turn pain into pleasure, least to of
the one with the other, To make he former a
and the latter a refreshment The most unaffected
dignity of suffering does this, and if wise, acknowl-
edges 1t. The greatest benevoence towards others,
the most unselhsh relish of their pleasures, at
its own expense, does but lock increasing the gen
erai stock of happiness though content, If it could,
to have its identity swallowed up in that splendid
We far from meaning that this
is to be called selfshness We are far, indeed. from
thinking so, of so confoundng words. Blu: nei,h-
er Is 1t to be called pain when most unseish, if dis
ntesestedness be truly understood. The pain that is
in 1t softens into pleasure, the darker hue Of the
rainbow melts into the brighter Yet EVENT. harsh
er line is to be drawn between the pain and pleasure
Of the most unselfsh mind (and Ihealth, for instance
may draw It, We should not quarrel with il il con-
trIbued to the general mass of comfort, and were of
nature which general kindness could not avoid ;
Made as we are, there certain pains without which
would be difficult to conceive certain great and
balancing pleasures. We NAV conceive il DossbI. C
for beings to be made entirely happy but in our a
composition something of pain seems to be neces-
say ingredient, In order that the material may turn
10 as hne account as possible, though clay. in P
The course of ages and experience, may be refined
more and MORE We may get rid of the worst earth,
though not of earth itself. S
low the liability to the loss of cbdren-or rath-
Or what renders sensible of it, the occasional loss
tself-seems to be one of these necessary btters u
thrown into the cup of humanity. We do not mean I
mat every one must lose of his children in order
to enjoy the rest; or that every individual loss alics
US IN the same proportion. We aude 10 the deaths v
Of Infants IN general. These might be as few as we
could render them. But if at all ever took Mace
we should regard every little child as man or woman
secured and it will easily be conceived what world
81 endearing cares and hopes this security would ell
Danger The very idea OF infancy would lose its con-
tInuy with u.s. Girls and boys would be future men
and women, not present children. They would have
attained their full growth in our maGinations and
might as well have been men and women at once On
the other hand, those who have lost an infant are
never, as 1t were, without infant child They are
The only persons who, in sense retain il ALWAYS
and they furnish their neighbors with the same idea
ne other children grow up to manhood and woman 8
hood and suffer all the changes of morality This
one alone is rendered an immortal child Death has
arrested with his kindly harshness and blessed i,
into an eternal image of youth and innocence U