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Mills, Jowett and Mills, (late Bensley,) Bolt Court.

THE

ORIENTAL

HERALD.

No. 22.-OCTOBER 1825.-VOL. 7.

Y

ON THE RESPECT DUE TO THE MEMORY, OF THE dead.

De mortuis nil nisi bonum,

Ir would be easy enough to choose gayer topics than those we sometimes delight to dwell upon; for society has at least as many comic as tragic features. But perhaps a careful examination of our present literature may show, that of all subjects for speculation, those that really come home to men's business and bosoms, and have a relation to the lead and bearing of the mind, are least laboured by periodical writers. Whether our authors find it easier to seem original, in the short flights they allow themselves, by clothing the transient events of the day in commonplace imagery and quaint expression, than to interest by endeavouring to lift the minds of their readers above ordinary and vulgar associations, we cannot tell; but it is very certain that the great majority of them rise very little above trifling. Being not at all ambitious of invading their province, and having, perhaps, a secret predilection for very different subjects, we generally strike into a more laborious course, and trust to the common light of truth for making it agreeable.

Our present subject, the respect due to the memory of the dead, has a very deep-rooted, general interest,—an interest in which every man more or less sensibly shares, and which, if well considered, will be allowed to have given rise very naturally to the maxim we have chosen for our motto. Whenever, in general society, the dead are made the topic of conversation, a disposition to censure lightly their faults and errors, and to enhance their merits and agreeable qualities, is observable in most men ; and, indeed, the contrary would, for the most part, be regarded as exceedingly unamiable and savage. A disposition so generally prevalent must have some grounds in our common nature; what these are, it is our present business to inquire.

Man is naturally magnanimous, and, in general, drops all hatred, and even envy, the most persevering of all passions, as soon as their object is prostrated and rendered powerless by misfortune or death; his feelings regarding the grave, in most cases, as an asylum to which humanity may retire unmolested from the struggles, and trials, and sufferings, and bitter remembrances of life. "There the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest"! Perhaps our rival or our enemy, had he fallen into our power, would not have appeared to deserve any punishment approaching in severity the loss of life; perhaps he might have been forgiven; Oriental Herald, Vol, 7,

B

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