is gone, or that what remains is ftale, flat and unprofitable.' The mind becomes defolate in fociety, alone in a crowd, helpless, though furrounded with fupport; its beft fupport is no more, and it abandons itself to the moit poignant reflections on past events, and to defpair of future happiness.

This grief for the lofs of a friend, however great, is fill capable of being heightened by being united with the tenderness of relationship. The friend loft, may be a favourite child, husband, wife, brother, or other relative. In fuch cafes, the lofs is the more irreparable, because, in all good minds, the relative affections are the ftrongeft ties of friendship, and once diffolved, can no more be renewed; whereas it is not impoffible to acquire friends in advanced life, perhaps equal to those we have loft. But when grief arifes from an union of love and relative affection, it may unquestionably be expected to appear in its moft violent forms.

it

Many inftances occur daily of the fatal effects of violent grief. In fome it produces a ftupefaction and total fufpenfion of all the faculties, which foon ends in death. In others, where gets vent in tears, and expreffions of anguish, it ftill continues to prey on the mind, to drink up the ftream of life, and to precipitate the unhappy object into an untimely grave. In others, it produces immediate diftrac tion of mind, from which a recovery is fometimes doubtful, and fometimes inftantly prevented by an act of defperation. It is melancholy to reflect that fuch are the confequences of an extreme of virtuous attachment. The general fenfe of mankind is favour able to the memory of fuch unhappy mourners. To fay that one died of grief, is to excite a mixture of the tendereft efteem and veneration.

The degrees of grief, in every cafe, depend on certain circumftances of mental or bodily conftitution. Women, in general, are morè liable to grief than men, partly from a greater degree of tenderness in the conftitu

tion of their minds, and of weakness and irritability in that of their bodies. They are, indeed, more subject to an excels in all the virtuous pations than men. The robust health, firmness of mind, and ever-varying avocations of the latter, prevent them from dwelling too constantly on any one idea. They can go abroad into the active and tumultuous world, enter into various engagements and purfuits, which employ the mind, and difiipate among a variety of concerns, that attention, which, directed to one object only, might lead to diffraction. Women have not thefe advantages, and cannot avail themselves of that change of place which brings a change of ideas. Perhaps, too, women, confined by the duties and obligations of the sex to a more contracted circle of pleafures, may place a higher value on friendship than men, becaufe the confolations of friendship are most neceffary in a ftate nearly approaching to that of folitude. We are likewife certain, that in all the relations of daughter, fifter, wife, or mother, their attachments are ftronger than those of men. To these remarks there may be fome exceptions; it is not meant here to establish a rule which cannot admit of fuch; nor is it neceffary to compliment the fex at the expence of truth; but it is prefumed, that what has been faid will apply to womankind, in general, which, if conceded, is fufficient for the prefent purpose.

Grief, too, will vary in its degree according to age. The grief of children is tranfitory; that of young people more keen and violent, but capable of alleviation. in the decline of life,' fays Dr. Johnfon, grief is of fhort duration; whether it be that we bear easily what we have borne long, or that, finding ourselves in age lefs regarded, we lets regard others; or that we look with flight regard upon afflictions, to which we know that the hand of death is about to put an end.'-But although, in old perfons, it is feldom of long duration, it must be allowed that it is very often,

in fuch cafes, fatal. The untimely death of a profligate fon, or his life, if it be spent in a repetition of crimes, without hope of repentance, has brought the grey hairs of many an aged parent with forrow to the grave. In this latter inftance, however, it is to be observed, that grief is probably mingled with fentiments of a different kind, with indignation, horror, wounded pride, and blafted hope.

Difference of difpofition will give different degrees of grief. Gay, unthinking people, are feldom fufceptible of this paffion in any very great degree, or, it may be added, in any very amiable degree. Their grief may be violent, but this is merely an affection of the nerves arifing from the gloomy apparatus of a death-bed, and the view of a lifeless body, that lately was all joy, activity, and pleafure. It wears off very foon, eafily yields to more pleafurable ideas, leaves

very

few traces behind, and feldom, indeed, any kindly remembrance of the decealed. Impious and profligate perfons, and thofe addicted to the purfuit of fashionable pleasures, are still lefs liable to fuffer by grief. The effence of grief is a love for the decealed, which fuch perfons generally how by feldom vifiting them when fick, and by removing as foon, and as far as poffible from them when dead, that they may avoid every thing which tends to interrupt their pleafures, by reminding them of that which is appointed to all men.' As, from perfons of this defcription, it is impoflible to expect real friendship, fo it is as unavailing to hope for fincere grief.

The degree and permanence of grief, will much depend, perhaps always, on the degree of weakness or ftrength in the mind, independent of every other confideration. The grief of a wife man is as different from that of any other man, as his actions would be in a cafe of difficulty. People of good hearts, but weak heads, are (reat fufferers by violent and unrea

fonable grief. We all know how dif ficult it is to

-Adminifter to a mind difeafed-or, Pluck from the memory a rooted forrow;'

and we feldom attempt it with any hopes of fuccefs, knowing that in such cafes,

The patient muft adminifter unto himle!f;'

and that it is impoffible to charm ach with air, or agony with words;' but if the afflicted perfon has no ingredient within to correct the exuberance of grief; if he can neither look back with pleasure, nor forward with hope, if he cannot be brought to confider the matter in either a Chriftian or philofophical light, we must leave his cure to the operation of time, and to that decay of memory, which is wifely contrived to lighten the load of human calamity.

Men, on the contrary, of firm minds, who have confidered the nature of affliction, the purposes it ferves, and the hand which chaftens, who know how to eltimate human life, and balance its joys and forrows, do not grieve, as those who have no hope.' Their grief is fincere, yet manly; permanent, yet fubmiffive. They mourn in filence, without arraigning the decrees of heaven by outrageous complainings. They think with the tenderett regret on him who is taken from them, perhaps in the midit of health, of honours, and of ufefulness; yet they indulge the humble hope, that he is gone but a day's journey before them, and that ere long they fhall meet to part no more.

The grief of perfons of weak minds, generally leads to extreme violence of voice and action, to intemperate expreffions bordering on impiety, and to a conduct which is as vexatious and tormenting to themfelves, as it is unpleafant to their friends, and difre

ectful to the memory of the deceased. They lament for all alike, without difcriminating between thofe removals which are among the kindeft of hea

which are accompanied by circumstances of distress, and perhaps difgrace to the furvivors, between the peaceful bed on which the Chriftian has breathed his laft, and the ignominious scaffold on which the hardened convict has expiated his crimes, between the lingering departure of the well prepared and cheerfully refigned foul, and the fudden end of him who is fnatched away in a moment, with all his imperfections on his head.'

Time has been faid to be the cure of grief, and perhaps it will anfwer in moft cafes. It is certain, that unlefs grief has produced fome bodily ailment, men feldom feek for any other remedy, But where this paffion has taken deep root, time may render it more mellow, and more regular, yet a thousand little circumstances will occur to keep it alive, and to promote its hurtful effects. A better remedy, however, may be found in Christianity, in the obligations it enjoins, and the confolations it affords.

Let us confider, in the first place, what grief is; that, with great love for the deceased, there is mixed a yet greater share of felf-love, prompting us to regret his death, more upon our own account than his. No perfon, I truft, will fay, that there is any thing to be lamented in the death of a good man. Why then all this forrow preying upon the fpirits, deftroying the health, obftructing the bufinefs of life, and rendering us averfe to its active duties? We cannot be fo ignorant as not to know, that fuch excess of grief is unavailing toward the dead, and unprofitable toward the living. The deceafed has gone to the place appointed for all men to receive the reward of a good and virtuous life. He is now far beyond the reach of all afflictions, and of all the afperities which encumber the progrefs of human life. He has paffed through the painful trials of ficknefs and forrow, with piety unabated, and confidence undiminished. What is

In

man approaches to envy of his happinefs. Would you recall him, if it were in your power? Would you, for a moment, harbour the thought of removing your friend from his prefent to his former fituation? Or if you think yourself juftified in indulging fuch a prepofterous with, of what mighty importance are you in the scale of human merit, that the decrees of Providence muft be altered for you? You are a Chriflian, and you profess the fentiments of a Chriftian. whofe hands then would you wish to place the difpofal of man's happiness ? Rather think, out of whofe hands you are now wishing to take that power. Tremble, that you have approached fo nearly to the murmuring of the impious, and the arrogance of the blafphemer. Tremble, that you have dared for a moment to repine at the wisdom of him, in whom you profefs to live and move, and from whom you have derived your being.

But, it may be faid, that the most poignant grief may fubfift for the lofs of a friend, without any fufpicion or intention of impugning the wife difpenfation of Providence in taking him away. It may fo, and you may defend it, by faying that you have loft a friend, fuch as the whole world cannot again furnish; that you are young, and know not how to find fuch a friend; that the experiment is dangerous, and the favourable refult next to impoffible; or that you are old, when it is too late to form new connexions; and that you are doomed to confume the evening of life in a mournful recollection of happiness, which can no more be yours.

Are you perfectly certain that all this is as you have stated, and muft be as you predi&? Did you monopolize all that existed of friendship; or is the world fo infenfible, and fo hardened, that no attachment remains far virtuous old age, no connexions which can make the last flate as happy as the firft? Thefe are mere illufions,

you

more complimentary to the memory of the deceafed, than confiftent with the order of things in the moral world. You know little of yourself, if think that all your happiness is buried with your friend, or that the happinefs of any perfon must depend entirely upon another. With regard,' fays an eminent writer, to the fharpet and most melting forrow, that which arifes from the lofs of thofe whom we have loved with tenderness, it may be obferved, that friendship between mortals can be contracted on no other terms, than that one of them mult, at fome future period, mourn for the other's death. And this grief will always yield to the furvivor one confolation proportionate to his affliction; for the pain, whatever it be, that he himself feels, his friend has escaped.

In the clofe of life, we begin to abstract ourselves from the pleafures connected with it, and the indulgence of grief may contribute to a purpofe fo effential. But at an early period, to indulge excefs of grief, from the idea that all your happiness is buried with a friend, and that you can never obtain fuch another, is at belt a pane gyric on the dead at the expence of the living. There may, perhaps, have bee in your friend, fome qualities, which may not be eafily found in another, but recollect what they were, whether abfolutely neceffary to your happiness, or only contributing to your

pleasure; whether in regreting them you are not felfish, and whether in being without them you are really a

lofer?

Submiffion to the divine will is a rational obligation upon all men; and joined to a proper eitimate of human life, cannot fail to remove all that is truly painful, and all that is improper in grief. Whatever the lofs may be by the death of a friend, it does not abfolve us from the remaining duties of life. Far lefs ought it to deprive us of the remembrance, that human life is made up of joy and forrow, that it is therefore a time of trial, of fufpence, of preparation, a prelude to fomething of greater confequence. The frequent recollection of this need not abate the proper refpect we owe to thofe who have been nearest and dearest to us. Grief is not to be difpelled haflily, or to yield to the cold and unfeeling fentiments of a comfortlefs philofophy: on the contrary, when we view the death of friends in that light which Chriftianity affords, our minds will acquire the due balance between excefs of tenderness and of infenfibility. The known fhortnefs of life, as it ought to moderate our paffions, may likewife, with equal propriety, contract our defigns,' and teach us that what we enjoy, we ought to enjoy with moderation, and that what we defire fhould never pass the bounds of huruble hope.'

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ALDE GRAVE, Mr. Grantham, and Charles Rainsford again mounted their horfes, and arrived at Gloucetter in the evening. They met with a very cordial reception from Mr. Hanscombe, and from his family, which confilled of a wife and two daughters. This gentleman was of a very amiable character. He was incek, modeft, and pious, of frict integrity, and of great benevolence,

He was of a difinterested temper, and abundantly more ready to folicit favours for others, than for himself. The fweetness of his difpofition, and the general prudence with which he conducted himself, added to his knowledge and his learning, which were not inconfiderable, had recommended him to the notice and eftem of the most difcerning and worthy perfons in his neighbourhood.

Mr