The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-11-07
ASHES no ASHES.
Canada In Line.
from the Urn.l

If our neighbors do not in due time
become convinced of the advantages of
cremation, it viii not be the fault of
the Montreal Gazette
This contemporary, always wide
awake and progressive, in referring to
the cremation of Lucy Stone says that
this event will probably attract special
attention on account of the high esteem
in which the deceased lady was held all
over the American continent; but really
the fact is merely an instance of a gen.
eral change of public feeling with refer
ence to the burial of the dead. Years
ago one of theehief obstacles advocates
of cremation had TO overcome was the
religious or rather the theological OBJ
| lection; in some way the practice of Gre.
nation was held TO conflict with rever-
ence for the doctrine of resurrection.
1t is hard to see how those who believe
with st. Paul in the resurrection Of the
spiritual not the natural body, could
persuade themselves that the disposal
of the lifeless clay could in any way AFT
feet the future of the departed spirit;
but one has only to look back into the
literature of the subject to see that such
is the case.
Nowadays this ecclesiastical objection
is rarely heard, and at last years meet
ing of the church congress in England
it was argued without contradiction
that there is nothing in the practice of
cremation antagontistic to the teaching
of the scriptures or the rubrics of the
Church of England The church and
the Bible speak neither for nor against;
it is on quite other grounds that the
question must be decided There is no
dispute as to what is to be aimed at
reverence for the dead, safety for the
living-and the thing is to decide by
an appeal to reason and common sense
which method best attat:.s these ends
Custom has consecrated to us the prac-
tice of earth burial, and any other sys-
tenn lacks the sanction of long usage
and familiarity to us and to our faith
ers. But, in the abstract, there is moth
ing irreyerent in cremation. To the
Greeks it seemed the most natural and
convenient way of disposing of the
dead, and no people could have regard
ed the ashes of their fathers with more
solemn reverence. 1t would appear to
us if we had been brought up to regard
it so, and if there is good reason, on
other grounds, for abandoning the prac-
tice of earth burial, public feeling
would slowly change, in favor of the
less familiar method of cremation.
Modern bacteriology has opened our
| eyes to the great risks of even momen-
tary nearness to the bodies of the dead,
especially of those who have suffered
from infectious diseases. Earth burial
necessarily implies a certain amount of
risk to the living, and it is matter
Of experience that it has not always
been accompanied by reverence for the
dead The CHASTITY revelations of Eng
lisih burial scandals are a sufficient
proof of this, and other old communi-
ties, though less known, are certainly
no better.
| The graveyard scene in "Hamlet" has
been enacted scores of times in every
ancient churchyard Of Europe. We
may avoid by strict regulations any
| such desecra ton of dead bones, but the
| objections to earth burial from a sani-
4 tary point of view cannot be altogether
overcome. The deferred interment,
which is made necessary in the winter,
and which makes the burial of the
dead double source of pain, would be
| avoided by cremation, and would be a
considerable gain. Properly conducted,
cremation may be made as reverent
4 as burial in the earth, and to many
minds it seems far less repulsive. OF
Its greater safety to the living there can
be no doubt, and SO far the balance OF
argument is in its favor. The objec-
ton that it would prevent discovery
of poisoning is counterbaIanced by. the
greater care that would be exercised
before cremation was permitted and it
is likely that the more the subject is
considered by thoughtful people the
more general will be the feeling in favor
of the abandonment of the practice con-
secrated to us by long familiarity and
the traditions of our fathers.