an _horashon_ over his corpse before we put him dacently
to bed with the shovel. Then, there's his poor widow left childless, and
divil a rap to buy paraters wid--bad luck to the eye that wouldn't drap
a tear to his mimory, and cowld be the heart that refuses to comfort
his widow!" Here poor Barney could no longer restrain his feelings,
and having concluded the family history, blubbered outright. It was a
strange mixture of the ludicrous and the sorrowful; but told with such
an artless simplicity and genuine traits of feeling, that I would
have defied the most ~27~~volatile to have felt uninterested with the
speaker. "You shall go, by all means, Barney," said I: "and here is
a trifle to comfort the poor widow with." "The blessings of the whole
calendar full on your onor!" responded the grateful Irishman. What
a scene, thought I, for the pencil of my friend Bob Transit!"Could a
stranger visit the place," I inquired, without molestation or the
charge of impertinence, Barney?" "Divil a charge, your onor; and as
to impertinence, a wake's like a house-warming, where every guest is
welcome." With this assurance, I apprised Barney of my intention to
gratify curiosity, and to bring a friend with me; carefully noted down
the direction, and left the grateful fellow to pursue his course.

The absurdities of funeral ceremonies have hitherto triumphed over the
advances of civilization, and in many countries are still continued with
almost as much affected solemnity and ridiculous parade as distinguished
the early processions of the Pagans, Heathens, and Druids. The honours
bestowed upon the dead may inculcate a good moral lesson upon the minds
of the living, and teach them so to act in this life that their cold
remains may deserve the after-exordium of their friends; but, in most
instances, funeral pomp has more of worldly vanity in it than true
respect, and it is no unusual circumstance in the meaner ranks of
life, for the survivors to abridge their own comforts by a wasteful
expenditure and useless parade, with which they think to honour the
memory of the dead. The Egyptians carry this folly perhaps to the most
absurd degree; their catacombs and splendid tombs far outrivalling the
habitations of their princes, together with their expensive mode
of embalming, are with us matters of curiosity, and often induce a
sacrilegious transfer of some distinguished mummy to the museums of the
connoisseur. The Athenians, Greeks, and Romans, had