of time. Generally, the place selected for the repose of the dead has been chosen, in consistency with the sympathy of which we have spoken; in places lonely, but not deserted, where the beauty of nature is heightened by the care of man, where the gloom of death cannot sadden the hearts of the living, nor the labor of life stand in too close contrast to the stillness of the dead.

We find in the earliest authentic history of the human race, that Abraham, when Sarah died, buried her in a place of this description. There is a beautiful simplicity in the account of his intercourse with the children of Heth on this occasion. In their respect for his excellence and greatness, they besought him to take any of their sepulchres, but he declined the proposal. When he had signified what spot of ground he desired to have, the owner entreated him to accept it as a gift; but this also he declined; and the proprietor consented to accept four hundred pieces of silver for the field, and all the trees that were within its limits and on its borders. This circumstance, thought worthy of being noticed in a history so general, shows that he had some regard to the beauty of the place; and with a similar taste, groves and gardens seem to have been chosen as the burial-places of all the Hebrews, who were rich enough to possess them. When Jacob was dying in Egypt, he could not bear the thought of being committed to the earth in the distance and solitude of a foreign land, and he charged his children to secure to him the privilege of sleeping with his fathers. Joseph, when dying, exacted a similar promise from his children. Doubtless, this earnestness was in part inspired by associations connected with the place of death.

It is not improbable that the Israelites learned this reverence for the dead in Egypt, which Abraham had visited in his earlier days. It is certain that they borrowed the practice of embalming, in which the Egyptians excelled all other nations. This singular practice, doubtless, originated in a desire to preserve the features of the departed for the satisfaction of their descendants, and may have been serviceable in keeping up the memory and example of virtue. It is said, that the mummies. were sometimes introduced at their festivals. Doubtless the bodily presence of those who were distinguished in their day, must have exerted a powerful influence on those who saw them; but the thought of death must be presented in such a manner as makes it welcome; if it come when unbidden or

unsuited to the place and time, it does more injury than good. And this is a reason for placing the tomb in the midst of the beauty and luxuriance of nature, from which the soul is always ready to look to the grand and solemn vision of death. The great Egyptian Cemetery was in a place of this description. It was on the farther shore of the lake Acherusia, near Memphis, ornamented with trees and water-courses, and answering to the Elysian fields of later times. On the nearer side of the lake was assembled the celebrated court, which sat in judgment on the dead. The more wealthy Egyptians sacrificed this true taste for nature to their ambition of splendor; their mummies were gathered in catacombs, whence, after an immortality of three thousand years, they are stolen as curiosities or plundered of their aromatic gums. The tomb of the kings, discovered by Belzoni, abounded in magnificence, and the plastering on its walls was so fresh and brilliant, that his richest colors were pale beside them. The pyramids do not seem to have been intended exclusively, if at all, as monuments of the dead. When Belzoni opened the second, bones were found in a sarcophagus in the central chamber, which turned out to be those of a sacred animal, and not of man.

What importance was attached to the rites of sepulture among the Hebrews, appears from the well known vision, in which Isaiah described the downfall of the Assyrian king; prophesying, how he should sink in all his glory beneath the mightier arm of death. The prophet represents the whole. earth as rejoicing in his overthrow, and saying, with its thousand voices, How hath the oppressor fallen! the golden city fallen! The fir-trees, (which were the chiefs of Israel,) rejoice, saying, now thou art cut down, no destroyer will come up against us.' And where is he, whose ruin causes all this exultation? His corpse is cast out by the way-side, and thus visited with the deepest dishonor; there, way-farers find him, and triumph over him, as he lies helpless before them. They gaze earnestly upon him, saying, 'Is this the man that made the earth tremble; that did shake kingdoms; that made the world. a wilderness?' They taunt him with his being thus cast out by the way-side like an accursed thing, and compare him with those whose remains enjoy the honors of the tomb. The kings of the earth,' they say, 'lie in glory, every one with his sword under his head; but thou art cast out from the grave, because thou hast destroyed thy land and slain thy people.'

And when, in the continued vision, he arrives at the entrance of the vast cavern, in which the embalmed remains of his royal race were laid, the whole realm of death rises up to meet him; chiefs and kings break the slumber of years; they bend their stern brows on their degenerate son, the last and most unworthy of their mighty line, and say, in anger and scorn, 'Art thou become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? How art thou fallen from Heaven, bright morning-star!' That the Assyrian oppressor should be thus deprived of funeral honors, is described as the last vengeance of the Almighty. 'The worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.' The whole vision shows in an impressive manner, what a reproach and misfortune it was then considered, to lose the shelter of the grave.

There is no doubt, then, of the importance attached by the Hebrews to the burial of the dead; and this, as well as their patriotism, is a feeling which stands out in contrast to their usual hardness. In fact, the grave, in all countries and times, is the place where the best feelings are awakened; the conflicts of passion cease there, and all other feelings are lost in sympathy and concern for those who sleep within its narrow bounds. Before Christianity came, it was all the world had to remind them, that all must be equal at last, and that the rich must come from his palace and the poor from his labor, to sleep side by side in death. And to their honor be it said, they welcomed the thought, and took pleasure in being reminded of their duties.

But while all ancient nations united in doing the utmost honor to the departed, there was no uniformity in the selection of their places of rest. Among the Hebrews, the sepulchre was sometimes, like our Saviour's, in a garden; sometimes under a tree, and sometimes hewn from the sides of the rock. They were as various as the wealth and the ambition of the people; but it seems clear, that where the ground would not admit of cultivation, they kept up a simple and expressive custom of strewing the grave with flowers. The Greeks and Romans, likewise, buried their dead in groves and gardens, sometimes by the borders of the public roads, where their names might be often brought to the remembrance of those who passed by. The Athenian Ceramicus, the cemetery which received those who had lived or died in the service of their country, was ornamented in such a manner as to make it a pleasant resort for all who wished to borrow inspiration to noble deeds. In the

registry of all antiquity, we find the same evidence of the fact, that death carried with it a title of respect; the king of terrors imparted something of his own majesty to all the victims of his power. The grave was the place where the living looked their last upon the dead; and to surround it with proofs of the interest with which it inspired them, was thought the least that affection or esteem could do.

On one point, the testimony of the ancient world seems to have been unanimous and decided; we mean as to the propriety of removing the dead from the immediate vicinity of the living; not that they apprehended injurious effects upon the health of their cities; but guided by sentiment and propriety alone, they agreed in the necessity of this separation. The rule seems to have been generally observed, except in case of those whose wealth and vanity enabled them to break through it, or of public men, who were thought to have earned a right to sleep in the midst of the city for which they had shed their blood. Burying in churches is an invention of comparatively modern times. Constantine is said to have been the first, who ordered his sepulchre to be erected within the consecrated walls, and the superstition which attended the imperfect Christianity of the earlier ages, led others to follow his example; the church being regarded as a fortress, whose spiritual defences would keep off the evil spirits, which were always striving to break the rest of the dead. We cannot speak confidently with respect to the danger to health which arises from such practices. It has probably been over-rated, if, indeed, it exist at all. But, apart from this, there are reasons of a different character, why the dead should be removed from the intrusive and engrossing neighborhood of the living, where their memory is sure to perish, and their remains, after being allowed to rest so long as friends can remember and defend them, are at last trampled under feet.

We know there are those, who say it is of little importance where dust returns to dust; who say they care not what becomes of the body, when the soul has left it. But this philosophic contempt of such things is not a natural feeling. The least thing associated with the remembrance of a departed friend, is consecrated in every good mind; and whoever treats such memorials with indifference, however he may boast his own freedom from prejudice, shocks the moral sense of mankind. If there are some, who reason themselves into indifference, with

many these thoughts are full of power. We know that Christianity has exalted the claims of the mind, and taught its disciples to deem lightly of the suffering and even the destruction of the body, compared with the welfare of the immortal part. But religion is never at war with nature; and the same religion, which requires the sacrifice of every thing at the call of duty, allows the fullest indulgence to every natural and innocent feeling.

There are examples in modern history, which show how important it is to guard and respect the quiet of the grave. It was an evil hour for the Stuarts, when their unmanly vengeance cast out Cromwell, Ireton and Bradshaw from their tombs; it turned the moral feeling of the world against them. And we doubt not that much of the interest which still attaches to the name of Napoleon, is owing to the circumstance of his lonely sepulchre in the heart of the seas, as if his remains were banished from the presence of men. Far better would it have been to let him rest in Père-la-Chaise, where the enthusiasm of his adorers could spend itself upon his grave. In his character, there was very little to admire or love; but his imprisonment on a rock in the ocean had made many feel for him as an exile, who cared nothing for his glory. They feel, too, as if the dead who can offend no longer, might be permitted to sleep in the land which is still covered with the blaze of his renown. Such, if we may depend on an ancient history, was the judgment of Louis XI., by no means the worthiest of the kings of France. No one can believe that he was influenced by any generous feeling; but when he was solicited to deface the monument of Bedford, the great Regent of France, he indignantly refused. What honor will it be to me,' said he, to deface the sepulchre of a man, whom my fathers could not prevail against while he lived; a man, whose wit and valor shame the proudest of us all? I rather say, May God have mercy on his soul!' This accomplished hypocrite had wisdom enough to know, that policy and his own interest, setting aside generosity, required of him to respect the dead.

The Report which has led us into these reflections, is signed by the President of the Horticultural Society, and it could not appear under better auspices; this gentleman, and those associated with him, having secured the respect of many in every part of our community, by their liberality in giving all kinds of aid to those, whose pursuits are similar to their own.