Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1858-09-15
Flowers on Graves.

FLOWERS on GraVes.
Nothing is more pleasing, says the Wash
ington Dispatch, to some of the best feelings
Of our nature than that sweet, yet obsolete
practice Of adjoining with flowers the graves
of loved ones. The practice once prevailed
the most celebrated nations of the
ancient world. The Modes bequeathed it to
the Persians, from whom the Greeks adopted
it, and Pythagoras introduced it into Italy.
Many of those immorta heroes, whose names
have descended to us through classic chan
nels, have had their memory dignified by
the record, that their surviving friends, deem
ed them worthy this token of their love-
The urn containing the ashes of Philopoemen,
was covered with chaplets of flowers. We
learn also that the grave of Sophoclcs was
embellished with roses and ivy, if the cpl
taph written by Simonides deserves that con-
struction "a metrical translation by some
one unknown, we offer:
wind, gentle evergreen, to form a shade
Around the tomb where Sophocles is laid.
Sweet ivy, wind thy boughs, and intertwine
With blushing roses and the clustering vine.
Thus will thy lasting leaves, with beauty
hung,
Prove grateful emblems of the joys he sung"
Ivy and fowerets were also planted at the
grave of Anacreon. The tombs of Hafiz and
SADIE, the great poets of Persia, are honored
by their survivors with every token Of graft
tude. The former stands upon the cypress
he planted with his own hand. SADIE is bu-
ried in a building erected in the heart of a
mountainous amphithe9tre, surrounded with
perpetual verdure and fertility. Minus. of
Babylon, was buried under a white mulberry
tree. Klopstock, one of the first German
poets, has a monument, over which shadow
a lime tree. Flowers were formerly spread
over his grave.
Thus we have the authority of example
worthy of imitation but we have more
Poets, who have descended from the darkest
ages as patterns of taste, have embellished
their descriptions of funeral rites with this
amiable custom. Eneas is beautifully re-
presented as sprinklinghi his fathers grave with
flowers. Andromache is described raising
green affairs to the memory Of Hector.
Grateful as the tribute of affection seems
to be, there are but few-even among those
modern nations which lay the strongest claim
to refnement-who have not let this pa
thetic rite 60 to oblivion, with many others
of those customs which are too innocent
and full of tenderness for the mo1ern taste
In some of the romantic regions of Switzer-
land and Wales, it is yet prevalent. In Chi
ma, in Java, in Crimea, in the country of the
Moors, and among many of those nations
which, by our standard, are ranked with the
5 halfcivilized portions of the globe, this mon.
e ument Of refinement still stands, a living re
buke to enlightened pride. After the celebra
e ted defeat of the French and Bavarians anon;
v the Tyrolese mountains, one circumstance i
S worthy Of the same immortality which mus
L be the portion of these hardy people. In al
y the records of bloody strife, we have no in
q stance Of the kind. Contrary to the usua
h mode of interring their dead on the field {
d battle, the Tyrolese who fell on that day wer
te all carefully carried to their homes and BIT
g ried, each in the c%hurchyard of his native vi
% lage. There the hands Of the survivors hav
a planted their graves with living flowers, an
the traveller, to this day, can number th
tile mounds under which repose the sacr
~ conSt$red in that strife, on the altar Ofthe
49, miberty. Enviable monument fC
~ -a cherish the ashes of i
for This is no theme fo.. (,
ria ride it has a real M
nix which will find a response ~
is not sunk beneath the sphere
o a for. Many are the eulogies on th6
labors of the departed great but wheE
ing visits their tombs, no flowers are there
ep- emblems of that state of eternal bloom
buA which they have passed. We find, oft
md Mines, the dust where their ashes rest, s
of ded with the meanest weeds, trampled
the most degraded animals and if any I
con- morial of affection is to be found, it is OF
Ma the cold stone, filter for anything else tn
} to the type Of what was once warm with friel
pcti- ship, and beautiful with smiles. Let us 81
ling for Improvement in this matter, and do
hicl share towards reviving this once general a
tell beautiful practice-Flowers on the graves
ness, our dead.