USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Guide to Laurel Hill Cemetery, near Philadelphia, with illustrations > Part 7
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APPENDIX. 149
the taste of the waters of an unexpected fountain. When death is in our thoughts, nothing ean make amends for the want of the soothing influenees of nature, and for the absence of those types of renovation and deeay which the fields and woods offer to the serious and contemplative mind .- Wordsworth's Essay on Epitaphs.
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CHRISTIAN BURIAL.
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THERE is a very general predilection among men of almost every denomination of Christians among us, in favour of interments in graveyards connected with churches; and the impression, almost universally, pre- vails, that this arrangement has generally been coun- tenanced and approved by the church as a body. To / some who read this article even a doubt on the subject will be quite new ; and yet, strange as it may appear, it is nevertheless true, that the sanetions of the church, far from favouring such interments, have, for the most part been diametrically opposed to them.
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Before the era of Christianity, the unvarying custom of the world, in every country where inhumation was practised at all, was to place the cemeteries beyond the bounds of the town and villages for whose use they were intended. Among the Greeks, who buried their dead more generally than any other ancient people, this rule was inviolable. The Romans incorporated it among the
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Laws of the Twelve Tables, and generally placed their cemeteries along the public highways leading to the city. It was sedulously observed by the Jews also ; and hence we are told that the saints who came out of their graves at the crucifixion of our Saviour, went into the Holy City and appeared unto many.
A system so evidently founded upon a wise and beneficent regard for the health and comfort of the living, could not fail of being approved and adopted in the discipline of the Christian Church, as soon as it became a distinct, recog- nised body ; and accordingly, we find, from the writings of the ancient fathers-from the decrees of synods and councils of almost every age-in papal bulls, and in the encyclical letters of the metropolitan clergy-an unvarying series of testimony that such was the fact. Pope Julius caused public cemeteries to be constructed, in addition to those previously existing, without the walls. The names of more than forty such are preserved in ecclesiastical history. All cemeteries (says Chrysostom) were placed. without the gates. They were not permitted in cities, because the presence or vicinity of the dead would not only contaminate pure air, but incommode the inhabitants by the stench they would occasion. Nullum in civitate sepulchrum struiter.
Burial in cities was also prohibited by the statutes of Constantine, by the code of Theodosius, and by the Justi- nian code ; and as late as the sixth century, the Senate of Rome-then the metropolis of Christendom-had not yet permitted any cemetery in or near the city,
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It is true, that an exception was made at a very early period, in favour of martyrs, who were permitted to be buried near the altars of the faith for which they had bled; and that this privilege was afterwards extended to embrace founders of churches, and other great benefac- tors ; then the higher clergy ; and all such as died in the odour of sanctity ; and there can be no doubt, that, by the continual increase of these exceptions, the privilege came, at last, to be very much abused-yet, "it is equally certain that THE CHURCH, always animated by the same spirit, never ceased its efforts to restrain the evil, and as much as possible to re-establish the ancient customs."*
From about the sixth century, when the abuses had become very prevalent, the declarations of synods and councils begin to make their frequent appearance. Some of these, indeed, were intended merely to define cases in which burials in and about churches might be allowed ; but even these show the existence of a general prohibition, as the rule is demonstrated by the statement of its excep- tions. Generally the councils and synods of earlier date, appear to have been more specific in laying down the prohibition, while those of a later period were chiefly anxious to define and regulate the exceptions ; all of them, however, concur, equally, in the existence of a rule of discipline adverse to such interments, and in the con- sistent maintenance of this rule, generally, by the primi- tive church.
* Walker's Researches.
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In more modern times, when the evil arising from the violations of this wise and wholesome rule had accumu- lated to a frightful extent in' some countries of Europe, we still find the clergy-particularly in France -- perse- vering with a truly Christian zeal, in their endeavours to restrain and correct them. In some dioceses ecclesiastical ordinances were passed; in others circulars were addressed by the bishops and archbishops, to engage public attention on the subject ; and among these, that of the Archbishop of Toulouse, by the eloquence with which it recapitulates the origin and progress of these evils, and the extremes to which they had been carried in that province, will justify us in making the following extract somewhat at length. "Such," said he, adverting to the facts above quoted, " was the primitive discipline in relation to inter- ments, and what is most interesting in this statement is, that legitimate exceptions have been used, as precedents for its infringement ; so true it is that the slightest com- promise of a law leads finally to its destruction or total violation."
" Those who by an exemplary life had acquired a reputation for holiness, were allowed to partake of the privilege of martyrs ; but this holiness was not so easily substantiated as the heroism of those who sealed their faith with their blood, and as the number of Christians increased, proofs became still more difficult and obscure. Indulgence was then used, appearances soon assumed the place of reality, and equivocal signs of piety obtained prerogatives only due to genuine zeal."
APPENDIX. 153
" The clergy, on account of their sacred functions, and the nobility, whom their high rank made more desirous to shun the dishonour and scandal of vice, claimed to be interred within the temple. Founders of churches became invested with the same right, and transient benefactors required the same reward for their donations. The de- scendants of both claimed' as a patrimony, that which had only been granted to individual merit. When the privilege was thus general, a refusal was an exception that threw an odium on the unsuccessful applicant. Where the admission of any one was a favour, none could be excluded who had any pretext to offer. In the early ages, burial in churches had been expressly forbidden, or even inhumations in cities ; but, by the gradual increase of a fatal condescension, the evil has arrived at a height that demands attention. Cemeteries, instead of being beyond our walls, are among our habitations, and spread a fœtid odour even into the neighbouring houses. The very churches have become cemeteries. The burial of Chris- tians in an open place, set apart for the purpose, is con- sidered a disgrace!'and neither the interruption of the holy offices occasioned by the repeated interments, nor the smell of the earth imbued with putrescence, and so often moved -*-*- can check the vanity of the great, or of the commonalty who follow their example."
" The Gallican Church," he adds, " has shown much zeal in endeavouring to recall the ancient discipline upon this point ; interment in churches is prohibited by almost every council held in the kingdom ; almost all the rituals
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and synodal statutes forbid it; and latterly many bishops have done their best to correct this abuse." Then follows in a note a long list of bishops and archbishops of the French Church, who, during the 17th and 18th centuries, promulgated ordinances against burial in towns or in churches. .
This labour of Christian philanthropy, on the part of the French clergy, happily at length produced its desired effect. The arm of the secular power was gradually united in the same effort, and in the year 1765, and sub- sequently, the Parliament of Paris lent its aid (we quote its own language) " to reinstate the ancient discipline of the Church." The French Government soon after adopted the enterprise as its own, and, in a preamble referring to " the recommendation of the archbishops, bishops, and other ecclesiastics, in council assembled,"-commenced the course of legislation which ended, finally, in the sup- pression of the parish cemeteries, and the substitution of special localities, properly chosen on high ground apart from the dense population, and solemnly consecrated to this object. Such was the origin of the noble institutions of Pere La Chaise, Vaugirard, and Montmartre; and the remains of six millions of human beings, who had pre- viously occupied the parochial burying grounds, in the heart of the city, now repose in the recesses of the cata- combs.
By a very moderate calculation, from correct data, it is found that within the next three generations-a period not longer than the occasional duration of a single life-
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there will be at least three and a half millions of human bodies waiting interment in the city of New York! Humanity is startled at the vastness of this number ; and the Christian philanthropist is equally alarmed, in con- sidering the consequences of such a deposit in the heart of our city, and the utter inadequacy of all present means and appointments for that purpose. He may dismiss his fears, however, if he will but regard, rightly, the custom of all ancient times-the discipline of the Church-the benevolent efforts of a long line of eminent bishops and fathers therein-or the recent and most instructive expe- rience of the large cities and old countries of Europe; and he will then also be prepared to act, with zeal, in the duties which sound policy and true religion equally enjoin. -New York American. -
LAUREL HILL CEMETERY.
MR. EDITOR :- The following stanzas were suggested by a refreshing ride on a Saturday afternoon, during the recent sessions of the General Assembly, in company with a few friends, to this burying ground. It is situated on a hill, which presents one of the finest prospects around Philadelphia. The Schuylkill rolls solemnly at its base ; and on these grounds, now devoted to the departed, an ancient mansion stands, that once was the abode of domestic enjoyment. The air of mingled pensiveness
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and cheerfulness which the whole scenery wears, can be better understood by those who have felt its influence, than by those who read any description, however eloquent. I have sought in these lines, not to give a description of the spot, but to embody the vivid impressions which were derived from the visit :
Delightful spot! sweet resting-placc, Where weary ones may lay their head : Where Beauty lifts her rosy face Around the tomb, and. o'er the dead !- Proclaiming that the gentle thoughts Of love and friendship here may thrill ; That reverent memory here allots Her flowers a place to blossom still.
Ask ye why o'er the solemn tomb, Alone, the cypress should not wave ? And why in Nature's fairest bloom We thus array the silent grave ? We answer, Faith and Love have pass'd In radiant light through all the spot. And blooming flowers around them cast, Fit emblems of their children's lot.
Oh, if the living would but keep Their warning words and precepts well, How soon this place of final sleep 1
Would all of peace and glory tell !-
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Would hang on all its noble groves The gathered fruits of paradise ; Till heaven, with all its joys and loves, O'er all the scene should seem to rise.
Then o'er thy hallowed soil how sweet To stray at will and muse alone, Or walk with friends, and smiling meet Around the lasting burial-stone; To stand upon thy noble height, Amidst thine ancient forest trees, Communing with the stream in sight, And with thy life-restoring breeze.
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- There fancy how the spirit stands, Upon the glowing points of life, And gazes on those happy lands Which lie beyond this world of strife ; 1 And then exult, in joyous hope ,Of that bright morning which shall break On every mountain height and slope, When all the dead in Christ shall wake;
Then in a brighter land of rest The holy men of earth shall roam, And on a fairer hill be blest, And find an everlasting home-
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Where neither fading flower nor leaf The bowers of life shall e'er deform- Where joy shall never change to grief, Nor zephyrs die before the storm.
O that thine aspect, soft, serene, With all its whispered lessons may Be in my heart and actions seen, Where'er my pilgrim feet may stray. Thy calm and gentle loveliness, Thine admonitions true and deep- These would my spirit ever bless, - And long in grateful memory keep.
So may each vision of the tomb Be like the quickening touch of God, To save me from the sinner's doom, And lift me to his own abode ! And when the grave and wasting worm Shall riot on this frame of mine, Give me, O God, an heavenly form, And in thine image let me shine ! New York Evangelist. N. E. J.
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From Dunglison's Medical Intelligencer.
RURAL CEMETERIES.
WHATEVER truth there may be in the opinion, that ani- mal putrefaetion does not produce malarious disease, or any wide-spreading pestilenee, there ean be little doubt that air, charged with putrid miasmata, or with products of an animal decomposition arising from bodies confined in a small space, as in the case of private vaults when first opened, may, especially, in impressible individuals, so affeet the nervous system as to produce high nervous disorder, and that when sueh miasmata are absorbed by the lungs in a eoneentrated state, they may exeite putrid disorders or dispose the frame to unhealthy exanthematous affections. Experiment seems to have shown, that when putrid substances are injected into the blood they are cx- tremely deleterious, and that when exhaled from the dead body they have occasionally exeited serious mischief in those exposed to their action. According to Baron Percy- one of the eminent army surgeons of France, during the domination of Napoleon-a Dr. Chambon was required by the Dean of the Faculté de Médecine of Paris to demon- strate the liver and its appendages before the Faculté, on applying for his license. The decomposition of the sub- ject, given him for demonstration, was, however, so far advanced, that Chambon drew the attention of the Dean to it, but he was commanded to go on. One of the four candidates, Corion, struck by the emanations from the
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body as soon as it was opened, fainted, was carried home, and died in seventy hours ; another, the celebrated Four- croy, was attacked with a burning exanthema; and two others, Laguerenne and Dufresnoy, remained a long time feeble, and the latter never completely recovered .*
The possibility of such evils is highly favourable to the view-now every where prevalent-that the cemeteries of large towns should be at some distance from the inhabited portions. Even were we to set aside hygienic considera- tions, there are others which come home forcibly to the minds of all. In every age it has been the custom, with mankind generally, to regard the depositories of the dead as objects of veneration. In ancient Rome, the place was held religious where a body or any portion of it had been buried ; and the violation of the tomb was punished by fine, the loss of a hand, working in the mines, banish- ment, or death. Even in the savage Tonga Islands, the cemeteries are accounted so sacred, that if the deadliest enemies should meet there, they must refrain from at- tacks of hostility. . Yet, occasionally, in a civilized age, and in countries unquestionably enlightened, in the ordi- nary acceptation of the term, the sanctuary of the grave is needlessly violated, and political anarchy, religious bigotry, infidelity, or what is esteemed the spirit of im- provement, but which is too often the thirst after lucre, have subverted sensibilities which are ordinarily held sa-
* Londe, Nouveaux Élémens d'Hygiene, Paris, 1827 ; and Elements of Hygiene, p. 110, Philadelphia, 1835.
APPENDIX. 161
cred. How often has it happened, in the progress of our own city to its present population, that places of worship have been disposed of, their cemeteries desecrated, and ashes, which, at the period when they were deposited there, it was presumed, would ever remain free from viola- tion, been exhumed and scattered to the winds. These and other considerations have given rise to the beautiful ce- meteries of Pere La Chaise, near Paris, of Mount Auburn, near Boston, and of Laurel Hill, near this city. The preceding remarks have, indeed been suggested by a re- cent visit to the last of these. Situated at a convenient distance from the city of Philadelphia, yet so far from it as to almost preclude the possibility of future molestation in the progressive improvement of the city or from other causes ; on a sylvan eminence immediately skirting the Schuylkill, and commanding a beautiful view of the ro- mantic river ; embellished in a manner most creditable to the taste and liberality of spirit of the respectable indivi- duals under whose management it has been projected and carried into successful execution,-it is indeed a hallowed place, where affection may delight to deposit the remains of those on whom it has doated,- 1. 1
" A port of rest from troublous toyle, The worlde's sweet In, from paine and wearisome turmoyle."
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MEMORIALS OF THE DEAD.
ONE of the most simple, yet beautiful and affeeting customs of antiquity which has deseended to modern times, is the decorating with flowers the graves of those we respected and loved. Accustomed as moderns are to term the ages and usages that are past, barbarous and un- eivilized, we cannot but think, that the little regard paid in our days to the memory of the departed, is a sad proof that advancement in literature and the seiences, is unfa- vourable to the cultivation and growth of some of the finest, sweetest, and holiest emotions of which the heart is susceptible. We have no desire to be ranked among the ultra sensitive : but certainly with us, this is no theme for unbecoming levity. There is a deep-toned voice in the care and respeet which every age and nation of anti- quity has shown to the memory of the dead,-there is a divinity that speaks in the lessons from the grave, which cannot be misunderstood, and which finds a response in every soul not utterly callous and insensible to its noble destinies.
In the unfading green of the cypress and ivy, the aneients found an emblem of the immortal vigour of the mind ; and in the annual renewal of the rose, and fresh blossoms of spring, a proof that man too after the winter of death and the grave be past, is destined to flourish in renovated beauty and splendour. Those important truths made known to us by revelation, they endeavoured to read in the widespread volume of nature,
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and the result was such as may well make us blush at the arrogance of our pretensions.
Notwithstanding the disuse and neglect into which this remnant of the fine feeling of the ancients has fallen, among the greater part of the nations of Christendom, still there are places where it is preserved in its primitive hallowed purity. A traveller assures us, that after the desperate struggle between the French armies and the Tyrolese peasantry, when the former were defeated in their murderous attempts to penetrate the mountain fast- nesses of the south of Austria, not one of the Tyrolese who fell was buried on the field, but after the strife of death was over, was borne by his friends to his own native village, in the churchyard of which, the little green mounds, planted with flowers, and freed from weeds by the pious care of survivors, still show the number of those that perished in that conflict for liberty. In the Crimea, in Niphon, in the southern shores of the Medi- terranean, among the Moors, and in China, is still observed the beautiful custom of planting and strewing flowers over the dead; a custom so affecting, and so full of refined taste, that it ought never to be suffered to fall into oblivion by those who make the slightest pretences to civilization. In Wales, when a young woman dies, she is attended to the grave by her virgin companions, each one bearing flowers, which, after she is deposited in her last abode, are sprinkled over the coffin. Over the monument of Klopstock, the impassioned author of the " Messiah," flowers are yearly strewn, and a lime tree there ever
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waves its spreading branches. In that populous city of the dead, the Pere La Chaise of the French capital, the cypress, the rose, and the willow are beautifully blended ; and on All-souls Day, those who have friends buried there are in the custom of visiting the place, bearing garlands of wild flowers and evergreens intermingled, to place upon the graves. The epitaph of the founder of Grecian Tragedy, the celebrated Sophocles, written by Simonides, proves that such a custom of honouring the illustrious dead, then existed :
" Wind, gentle evergreen; to form a shade, Around the tomb where Sophocles is laid. Sweet ivy, wind thy bows and intertwine With blushing roses, and the clustering vine; So shall thy lasting leaves, with beauty hung, Prove a fit emblem of the lays he sung."
There can scarcely be imagined a more delightful place, than that valley of unfading green, and everlasting flowers, where Sadi, the royal Persian poet, is entombed. Hafiz, of the same nation, and scarcely less renowned as a poet, planted with his own hands the cypress under which he directed his body to be entombed, and over which, for ages, his enthusiastic admirers and countrymen scattered roses, and hung chaplets of flowers.
There is no place that awakens more deep and sadly pleasing emotions, than to tread the ground where those we once loved, rest from their sorrows and their cares, Everything disagreeable and repulsive, in such a quiet
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scene ought to be carefully avoided ; and everything should be introduced which can have a tendency to soften the passions, and soothe and tranquillize the feelings. Yet how often do we in the sleeping-place of the dead, in the churchyards of both city and country, find the graves trampled upon by brutes ; a cold stone perhaps, to tell who sleeps below ; but no flowers are seen to picture by their renewal, the cheering hope of a resurrection ; no evergreen to shadow forth the immortality of the dead.
To the contemplative mind, there is something pleasing in the idea of sleeping the dreamless sleep, surrounded by those whom we loved while living, and beneath turf made radiant by the unsullied blossoms of Spring. To us, there is another interesting view of this subject, and which is so quaintly and beautifully expressed by Os- borne :- " He that lieth under the herse of heavenne, is convertible into swete herbes and flowers, that maye rest in bosoms that wolde shrink from the ugly bugs which may be found crawling in the magnificent tombs of Henry the VII." The same thought occurs in an " Address to the Mummy," by a later author :
" Oh, not like thee would I remain But o'er the earth my ashes strew ; And in some rising bud regain The freshness that my childhood knew !"
For ourselves, much rather had we sleep. where the moonbeams would convert into diamonds the dew-drops
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gathering on the rosebuds, than to lie beneath the dome of St. Peter's; and rest where the soft south wind would wake the fragrance of blossoms which affectionate hands had planted, than to moulder in the undiscovered chambers of the eternal pyramids .- Pennsylvanian. -
LINES,
WRITTEN AFTER A VISIT TO LAUREL HILL, JUNE, 1838.
BY THE REV. G. W. BETHUNE. D. D.
THE dead, the dead! the precious dead,
O, bear them from the noisy tread And crowded haunts of busy men, To the sunlight mount and vine-clad glen : Where the mourner, bending o'er the stone, May pour her tears, and breathe her moan, In the luxury of grief alone ; And no profane step intrude Upon the silent solitude.
The dead, the dead ! the Christian dead, On whose parting hour Christ's grace was shed,
خباز سعـ
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Let them lie where once the Master slept, And angels vigils o'er him kept : Amid the garden's living bloom, Where the mourner may lose all thoughts of gloom, In the verdure rich, and soft perfume ; And quell the murmuring thoughts that rise, In the hope of a better Paradise.
The dead, the dead ! the lovely dead, 1 1
O, make with them my last low bed, Not in the charnel's loathsome cave, But 'neath the turf of the verdant grave ; There let my. " dust return to dust," To rest in hope among the just, On my mother's breast in holy trust, Till that " illustrious morning" break, When " they who sleep in dust shall wake." 1
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