It is also invariably
performed by the nearest relatives and friends; no menials nor
hirelings are employed; and if a neighbor yields assistance, it
would be deemed an insult to offer compensation.
I have dwelt upon this beautiful rural custom, because, as it is one
of the last, so is it one of the holiest offices of love. The grave is
the ordeal of true affection. It is there that the divine passion of
the soul manifests its superiority to the instinctive impulse of
mere animal attachment. The latter must be continually refreshed and
kept alive by the presence of its object; but the love that is
seated in the soul can live on long remembrance. The mere inclinations
of sense languish and decline with the charms which excited them,
and turn with shuddering disgust from the dismal precincts of the
tomb; but it is thence that truly spiritual affection rises,
purified from every sensual desire, and returns, like a holy flame, to
illumine and sanctify the heart of the survivor.
The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to
be divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal- every other affliction
to forget; but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open- this
affliction we cherish and brood over in solitude.
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