The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1881-04-07
& ESTABLISHED IN
I MARCH, Is47.

ated with mans decease may be men,
toned one prevalent in Lancashire,
where it is believed that to build, or
even to rebuild, house, is always
fatal to one member of the family
generally to the one who may have
been the principal promoter in wish
ing for the building or alteration.
Fires and candles afford presages Of
death-cofins flying out of the former,
and winding-sheets guttering down
the latter. A Sussex piece Of folk
lore tells us that if the church clock
strikes twelve while hymn is being
sung in the morning service, a death
will most surely follow during the
following week.
High spirits have been considered a
presage of death, a notion alluded to
by Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet
". 81.
THEY been eSnra Which their keepers call
Indeed there are numerous instances
on record of this belief, which still
remains a psychological question.
Tytler, in his History of Scotland" !"
speaking of the death of King James,
l., says: "On the fatal evening (Feb-
ruary 20, 1866, the revels Of the court
were kept up to a late hour. :.
The prince himself appears to have
been in unusually gay and cheerful
spirits. He even jested, if we may be-
lieve the contemporary manuscript,
about prophecy which had appeared
that king should that year be slain"
In the evidence given at the inquest
upon the bodies of four persons killed
by an explosion at a firework manu-
factory in Bermondsey, October 10Th,
1849, one of the witnesses stated: "On
Friday night they were all very merry,
and Mrs. B. said she feared something
would happen before they went to bed,
because they were SO happy"
From very early period there has
existed a belief in the existence of the
power of prophecy at that period
which precedes death. 1t took its
origin in the assumed fact that the
soul becomes divine in the same ratio
as the connection with the body is
loosened. 1t has been urged in sup
port Of this theory that, at the hour
IF death, the soul is, as it were, on the
confines of two worlds, and may pos
'ibly at the same moment possess a
power which is both. prospective and
retrospective. Shakespeare in his
Richard II. QI. y, makes the dying
9aunt, alluding to his nephew, the
young and self-willed king exclaim:
And thns expngg, 90
Again in Henry ~, the brave
Percy, when in the agonies of death,
conveys the same idea in the following
words:
But that the earthy, and cold hand of death
Curious to say, this notion may be
raced as far back as the time of
Homer. Thus Patroclus prophesies
he death of Hector C'Iliad,'' ii. S52):
You yourself are not destined to live
ong, for even now death is drawing
Ugh unto you, and a violent fate
waits .you-about to be slain in
ght by the hands Of Achilles, the
son of Oacus. Again,
ARISTOTLE tells US that "the soul, when
n the point of taking its departure
rom the body, foretells and prophesies
hings about to happen" Others
ave even sought for the foundation
f this belief in the forty-ninth chap
er of Genesis: ''And Jacob called his
ons, and said, Gather yourselves to-
,ether, that l may tell you that which
hall befall you in the last days And
vhen Jacob had made an end of COM
handing his sons, he gathered up his
eet into his bed, and yielded up the
host, and was gathered unto his peo-
,le." Whether, however we accept
his origin or not, at any rate it is
cry certain that the notion has ex-
sted from the earliest times, being
lluded to also by Socrates, Xenophon,
nd Diodorous Siculus. The belief
till exists in Lancashire and other
,arts of England.
Many families, it is said, take their
pecial warnings of death, which as
ume special shapes. Thus, the an
lent baronet's family of Clifton, of
clifton Hall, in Nottinghamshire, is
orewarned Of approaching death by a
turgeon forcing its way up the River
Trent, on whose bank their mansion
5 situated.
Prince, in his ''W orthies of Devon"
ellis us that there is a family Of con-
iderable standing, Of the name of
)xenham, at South Tawton, near
)kehampton, of which this strange
md wonderful thing is recorded: That
It the death Of any of them, a bird
With white breast is seen for while
1uttering about their beds, and then
to vanish away"
Family omens of this kind are very
common; and it is unfortunate that
The great majority of them have been
to us without the partic-
llars that gave rise to them. In most
cases it is impossible to find any con-
1ection between the omen and the
family.
The superstitions associated with
leath are so extensive that a good-sized
volume might be written on this deeply
subject. In the present
paper | have therefore only been able
to lay before the reader a brief de-
scription of some of the most we'll
known ones; but these are sufficient
to show their general character. They
are valuable in so far as they illustrate
the ideas of our fellow-creatures at
that solemn and inexpressibly sacred
moment which soon must overtake US
all; and when it comes may it find us
ready!
"CAN | give my son a college edu-
cation at home?" asks fond parent.
Well, you may be able to teach him as
much of Greek and Latin and mathe-
matics as the college could; but you
never can so thoroughly imbue him