Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1859-08-23
4 sketch by Ne quincy.


The "Opium Eater in one Of his unTiyalIed
chapters, speaks Of the reason why death, 9TH
er conditions remaining the same, is more pro-
foundry affecting in summeT than in other parts
Of the year-so far at least, as it is liable 10
any modification at all from accidents Of seen
cry or season; the reason living, as we have
seen, in The sntagonism between the tropical
redundancy OF life in summer, and the frozen
sterilihes Of the grave. In a DEPRESSION Of
surprising pathOs and solemn beauty, Mr. De
Quincy then shows how ineEtricably, in early
childhood, bis own feelings andimages Of death
were entaDgled with those Of summer, as con-
nectel with Palestine and jerusalem, about
which he read with lis three sisters in the
nursery, from a pictured Bible, and learned to
associate the cl0udless sunlights Of Syria, and
he Pomps Of Palm Sunday, with the passion
and death Of the Lord Of life. And then he
returns 10 describe his visit 10 the room IN
which his dead sister lay. Let the reader read
and assent;
Turning round, I sought my sisters face.
But the bed had been moved, and the back was
now turned TO myself. Nothing met my eyes
but one large window, wide open, through
which the sun Of midsummer al midday was
showering down torrents Of splendor. The
weather was dry, the sky was cloudless, the
blue depths seemed the expressed types Of in
fnitV and it was not possible for eve to be-
aAAaH "a ~ a|AHN ~ ~ AAM .a
more pathetic Of life and the glory Of life.
From the gorgeous sunlight I turned ,Tsuud
10 the corpse. There lay the sweet childish
figure; there the angel face ----....I
stood checked for a moment awe, not fear,
fell upon ne; and whilst I stood a solemn wind
began 70 blow-the saddest / eger heard. Il
was a wind that might have swept the fields Of
mortality for a Thousand centuries. Many
times since, upon summer days, when the sun
IL ahr-H the hrfHaaF ] hnra ~amnrEaH the same
wind arising and uttering the same hollow,
solemn, Memn0nisn, but sanity swell Il is in
this world the one great audibls symbol Of eter-
nifty. And three times in my life have hap
pened 70 hear The same sound IN the same cir
cumstsnces-namely, when standing between
an open window and a dead body on a summer
day.
Instantly, when ny ear caught this vast
Aeolian intention, when my eve filed with the
1 golden fullness Of life, the p0mps Of the heavens
above, or the glory OF the flowers below, and
turning when it settled upon the frost which
I oyerspresd my sisters face, instantly a trance
fell upon ne, A vault seemed 10 open i1 the
zenith Of ths FAR blue SKY, a shat which ran
upfoTeyeT. 10 spirit rose as If on pillows
that also can up and the shaft forever and the
pillows seemed % pursue the throne OF God
but that also ran before ne and fed away con-
tiuually. The fight and the pursuit seemed q
90 on forever and ever. Frost gathering frost
some SsTsar wing Of death seemed to repel me
som mighty relation between God and death
dimly struggled 10 evolve itself from the dread
ful ~autsg0nism between them shadoWy mean
ings even vet continued 10 exercise the torment
in dreams, the dsciphering oracle within me.
] siept-fOr how long I csnno say slowly
recovered ny sslf-p0sssssi0n and when ]
woke, found myself standing, az before, clos'
10 my sisters bed.