Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1871-09-26

departure. In Holland, when child is
departing life, persons shade it by the
hands from the parents gaze-thc soul
being supposed to linger in the body as
long rs compassionate eye is fixed up
on it. The custom OF placinga feather
near the lips, TO ascertain whether the
breath has really lett the body, is as old
rs our race. Shakespeare represents
Prince Henry ag having been deceived
when he carried off the crown from his
fathers pillow:
"By his gates of breath
There lies n downy feather, which stirs not:
Did he suspire, that light and weighiless down
Perchance must move"
In Dcvonshire, England. when one is
dying ii is customary to uniastcn every
lock and bolt in the house, rs well of
trunks and chests OF drawers rs of doors
and windows. The reason assigned is,
that the parting soul may both take leave
of all familiar objects and also have free
egrcss from It's home. The passing
bell? was universal in all the Cathedral
towns of England up to the beginning of
the present century. It's name indicates
its mcaning g-the bell was tolled when
the soul was passing from this lie. An
old canon of the Church OF England is
express on the subject: And when any
person is passing out Of this life bell
shall be tollcd. and the minister shall not
then be slack to do his last duty" At
Dcwsbury, in Somersctshire, the passing
bell has been tollcd for many centuries
on Christmas eve. The popular and
probably true explanation of this strange
custom is, that il 10 the DEVILS knell-he
having died when Christ was born. In
many parts both of great Britain and the
United States there is superstition pre-
served in the distich:
"Happy is the wedding the sun shines on;
Blessed the corpse the rain rains on"
1t is Il curious but well established fact,
that at all the hours from ten in the morn.
ing until midnight deaths more rarely oc-
cur than from midnight until ten in the
iorenoon-thc latter being forty-live per
cent. more than the former-and that
more deaths occur from five to six O'clock
in the morning than during all other
hours OF the day.
Within seven or eight hours after death
u rigidity comes upon the body. 1t is
not confined to the external muscles, but
is manifested in the great or lesser blood
vessels, and in the heart The duration
OF this rigidity is ordinarily from twenty.
four to thirty.six hours, when il entirely
passes away. When the body is greatly
rmaciated or weakened by disease, or
distorted by long continued pain, it comes
on sooner and is more evanescent. The
researches of physiology fail to account
for il. 1t seems like the final act Of life,
and has been supposed to be the last re.
sort of muscular power. The analogy il
presents TO the coa.ulation OF The blood
has led to the belief that it was dependent
upon that Neither OF these solutions is
now regarded satisfactory. The pecu-
liar beauty OF the human face in death,
that rapture OF reposc" to which Byron
alludes in the giaoW, improves rs the
rigidity passes away from the body, and
is most perfect three days after death.
1t was for long time popular su-
perstition that the countenance preserved
in death the impress the mind made upon
it in dying. Such is not The case. Nei.
ther anger nor ferocity as nigh: be sup
posed 10 exist where death came of assas-
sinaton neither fear nor anguish, where
it occurred from the torture of the rack re-
mains upon the features. The same re-
pose of counienance, the same indication
OF placid rest steals over the last sleep.
Leslie, The royal acadcmician, speaking
in his autobiography of having been fire.
quenlly ordered TO make drawings of the
dead, and OF the reluctance in every case
he entered the room where the body lay,
says that the faint indication Of smile
which always lighted up the features OF
the dead, rs he sat at work, so attracted
him that he invariably felt reluctant to 90
away.
There is no doubt that causes wholly
unconnected with the state Of mind or
feeling at the time Of dissolution contrib.
ute to beautify the features. Antomarchi's
cast. taken from the face Of Napoleon
after death, is handsomer than any bust
or portrait Of him. Humboldts head,
wrought in marble by The sculptor from
the cast taken alter his death. is not only
more grand than the other numerous
busts during his life. but looks like man
of sixty rather than ninety one; and
Lockhart remarks that there never was
modelled more majestic image ofrGpose
than tho body Of Sir Walter Scott pre-.
sentcd few hours after death. In each
OF these cases, death added to the beauty
of faces of fine proportions without any
relation to metaphysical causes. 1t is so
always. The faint smile which steals
over the face after consciousness has
ceased, and that tranquil reposc of the
dead to which, in comparison, even the
sleep of an infant is agitation. are parts
of the unfathomable mystery that sur
rounds us Packards Monthly, April,
1869,
A WICKED Boy Minnesota had-but
has no lnn0er q nremium boy. .fend -