nd I smiled.
I walked out at noon--it was Summer
And I was glad.
I sat me down at even--it was Autumn
And I was sad.
I laid me down at night--it was Winter
And I slept."

Collections of curious old epitaphs have been made and printed, but seem
dull and colorless on the printed page, and the warning words seem to
lose their power unless seen in the sad graveyard, where, "silently
expressing old mortality," the hackneyed rhymes and tender words are
touching from their very simplicity and the loneliness which surrounds
them, and for their calm repetition, on stone after stone, of an undying
faith in a future life.

One cannot help being impressed, when studying the almanacs, diaries,
and letters of the time, with the strange exaltation of spirit with
which the New England Puritan regarded death. To him thoughts of
mortality were indeed cordial to the soul. Death was the event, the
condition, which brought him near to God and that unknown world, that
"life elysian" of which he constantly spoke, dreamed and thought; and he
rejoiced mightily in that close approach, in that sense of touch with
the spiritual world. With unaffected cheerfulness he yielded himself to
his own fate, with unforced resignation he bore the loss of dearly loved
ones, and with eagerness and almost affection he regarded all the gloomy
attributes and surroundings of death. Sewall could find in a visit to
his family tomb, and in the heart-rending sight of the coffins therein,
an "awfull yet pleasing Treat;" while Mr. Joseph Eliot said "that the
two days wherein he buried his wife and son were the best he ever had in
the world." The accounts of the wondrous and almost inspired calm which
settled on those afflicted hearts, bearing steadfastly the Christian
belief as taught by the Puritan church, make us long for the simplicity
of faith, and the certainty of heaven and happy reunion with loved ones
which they felt so triumphantly, so gloriously.

+-----------------------------------------+
| Transcriber's Note |
|Spelling, punctuation and inconcistencies|
|in the original book have been retained. |
|The oe ligature has been shown as [oe]. |
+-----------------------------------------+

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Customs and Fashio