Page images
PDF
EPUB

confidence as officers. They would then enjoy their hardearned pay, which is now, in great part, pilfered from them by the rapacious "land-sharks." If we were going to treat the subject of discipline, we should enlarge upon the necessity of introducing a system of rewards as well as punishments, and of relieving the seamen from a course of government wholly founded upon the debasing principle of fear. If his calling has its besetting sins, it has also its appropriate virtues; some attention to the cultivation of the latter would evince humanity, as well as wisdom.* But we will pass suddenly from the lowest to the highest grades of the profession. We have before had occasion to treat at some length the creation of Admirals, a measure without which, every effort towards the perfect organization of the Navy will be, if not fruitless, at least attended with only partial success. A single fact, pregnant with meaning, has since come to our knowledge, which may well be added in illustration of our remarks. a case of appeal made by a lieutenant, the commodore of a station found it necessary to reverse the decision of the captain commanding his flag-ship. The latter officer replied to the order of the commodore, that he was his equal in rank, and might therefore decline obedience. If experience and example can teach, we may here profit by their instruction.

In

Something has been heard of opposition to promotion, and to an increase of force, in the navy itself. It is so manifestly to the advantage of all, that every thing should be done to multiply the general means of usefulness, that the suspicion would seem to refute itself. A lieutenant can hardly be imagined to cherish an envious dislike to promotions, for they favor his own grade; and a captain as little, for they enhance the honor and dignity of his station. The humblest boy in the service can enjoy no melioration in his condition, whether moral or physical, but that the good redounds to the credit of all above him. We may suppose, however, that there are minds unable to grasp a comprehensive scheme of general

*In 1825, Captain Matthew C. Perry submitted to the Department, through Commodore Rodgers, a plan for the introduction of apprentices into the navy. The system has since been adopted, and, fostered by the judicious care of Mr. Paulding, it promises to supply the country with a body of seamen, superior in education and moral character to men of the same class to be found in any navy, or army, in the world. Our suggestions and observations are not intended to apply to these, but to the seamen admitted into the navy, in the ordinary manner, through the rendezvous.

improvement; whose petty vigilance extends only to details. Whilst they preserve the silence becoming their insignificance, and are content to receive with gratitude the benefit resulting from the exertions of others, they are harmless. But, if any active traitor is found in the ranks, — and reflection warns us that no service is altogether exempt from them, let it be the duty of every one to point him out, that the general voice may proclaim his infamy.

[ocr errors]

In what has been said upon the present condition of the navy, or suggested for its improvement, we are not aware of having advanced any thing that is novel, any thing that has not been discussed in naval circles. In fact, we have omitted to notice a striking feature, the active and inquiring tone of mind in all ranks of the profession. There is a universal conviction, that something must be done to build up the defence on which alone the country can depend in time of need, to give it a better organization and a more extended usefulness, to make it more worthy of the public reliance, and to provide, as far as possible, a security against its future neglect. It has been our desire in some degree, to embody this sentiment, which cannot be safely disregarded, and to collect, and put into form, useful information and ideas. If, unfortunately, there should be any men in civil or military stations, whose opinions derive weight from their authority, and who are opposed to progress in the navy, either on account of personal jealousies, or from a fear of innovation, we would admonish them, that " it is the part of wise legislators and military men, to watch and study the modification and changes which have gradually developed themselves in the character, and conduct, and feelings of those under them, bearing always more or less resemblance to the changes going on in society around them, and therefore commanding the countenance and influence of this public opinion. To conform to this in time, is to direct the change, and not yield to it, is retreating without discovery to take up a stronger position. In this way may be retained the highest degree of discipline and subordination, which the character of our people, and the nature of our institutions, will admit ; — to attempt to stem the natural current is the sure way to be overwhelmed by it."

ART. IV. 1. An Address delivered on the Dedication of the Cemetery of Mount Auburn, September 21st, 1831. By JOSEPH STORY. To which is added an Appendix, containing an Historical Notice and Description of the Place, with a List of the present Subscribers. Boston.

1831.

2. An Address delivered on the Consecration of the Worcester Rural Cemetery, September 8th, 1838. By LEVI LINCOLN. Boston. 1838.

3. The Dedication of the Green Mount Cemetery, July 13th, 1839. Address by JOHN P. KENNEDY. Baltimore. 1839. 4. An Address delivered at the Consecration of the Harmony Grove Cemetery, in Salem, June 14th, 1840. By DANIEL APPLETON WHITE. With an Appendix. Salem. 1840. 5. Exposition of the Plan and Objects of the Green-Wood Cemetery, an Incorporated Trust, chartered by the Legislature of the State of New York. New York. 1830. 6. Regulations of the Laurel Hill Cemetery, on the River Schuylkill, near Philadelphia; the Act of Incorporation by the Legislature of Pennsylvania in 1837; and a Catalogue of the Proprietors of Lots. Philadelphia. 1840. 7. Cemetery Interment: containing a Concise History of the Modes of Interment practised by the Ancients; Descriptions of Père la Chaise; the Eastern Cemeteries, and those of America; the English Metropolitan and Provincial Cemeteries, and more particularly of the Abney Park Cemetery, at Stoke Newington, with a Descriptive Catalogue of its Plants and Arboretum. London. 1840. "HERE's fine revolution, an we had the trick to see 't. Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at loggats with them? Mine ache to think on 't. " Hamlet speaks here, in his "moody moralizing" over the bones in the churchyard, which the clown, "who had no feeling of his business," threw out of the grave, the common sentiment of the human heart. But of what consequence, it may be asked, is the condition of these mortal bodies of ours, when they have fulfilled their brief office, and the aching frame has returned to its kindred earth? Suppose they be "knocked about the mazzard with a sexton's spade," what is that to the disenthralled spirit, which alone is cognizant? The Cynics did affect thus to speak of the burial of the dead. Plato, in his Republic, allowed no larger funeral monument than one VOL. LIII. - NO. 113.

49

which would contain four heroic verses, and set apart the most barren ground for sepulture. Pliny says, all interest in this subject is a weakness only known to men. Socrates seemed to be of this way of thinking, when he told his friends, after his manner, that they might bury or burn his body, if they would not think they thereby buried or burned Socrates; while in reality he only meant to declare his belief in the soul's immortality. Solon, one of the seven sages of Greece, wished that his body might be carried, after death, to his native Salamis, to be burned there, and its ashes to be scattered to the winds. The Cynic Diogenes directed his friends to expose his body after death to birds and beasts of prey. Seneca would give no directions in regard to his, saying that the necessity of the case would provide for it. There are insulated cases too, in all ages, of persons who, in like manner, are indifferent to what may befall their remains; and it is not, we suppose, a very difficult thing to make an argument to show why we might be thus indifferent. But argue and philosophize as we may on this subject, the fact, the all but universal fact, is otherwise. We all, as a general rule, feel otherwise; and feeling, on a question like this, is the best of all good arguments. We do care for the future condition of that, which was once so intimately a part of ourselves. It is no pleasant thought, that, in a few years, even perhaps before the grave-worm shall have done his whole work, these material parts of ourselves, once instinct with the deathless principle which makes us what we are, once the seat of all our sensations, and the medium of our whole intercourse with the world without, should be crowded in their last narrow house, or jostled from their final resting-place to make room for unbidden comers, or be cast up to the vulgar eye, and be "jowled to the ground, as if it were Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murder!" No, for ourselves, and, we repeat it, the sentiment is all but universal in human hearts, we desire a quiet and appropriate place of sepulture, where, secure from intrusion, and in decent observance, our remains may repose; and where those who loved us while here, may go and ponder on our memories when earthly intercourse is over.

[ocr errors]

But, whatever may be our unconcern for the final disposition of our own remains after death, we cannot be indifferent to the disposal of those of our friends. However coolly we may speculate on the nothingness of the "mortal coil," when the mysterious principle, that kept it from mingling with its

us.

kindred elements is extinct, the heart here again assumes its own high prerogative, and decides the question by an impulse that supersedes all argument, and with an authority that must be obeyed. All that was truly them and theirs survives with They yet live on in our affections. We still commune with them in our holiest hours. We hold a spiritual intercourse with them, which is more solemn, if not more tender, than their living presence could afford. How often, in standing by the grave of a friend, are we ready to respond to the beautiful tribute of Moore to "Mary." (O si sic omnia!) "Though many a gifted mind we meet, Though fairest forms we see,

To live with them is far less sweet
Than to remember thee." *

These recollections we feel it to be equally our duty and our privilege to cherish, and, though they are kindred with painful regrets, they are the last that we willingly forego. Hence all that once belonged to the departed, whom we loved, is now held as consecrate. All that they once valued is now yet more endeared to us. We love to multiply the tokens of what they were, and what they were to us. We are especially concerned to mark the spot where we took our last leave of all of them that was mortal. It henceforth becomes to us as holy ground; a place set apart and hallowed to tender recollections, to holy musings, to fruitful meditations, to virtuous resolves, to strong yet chastened anticipations of the hour when this "mortal shall put on immortality," and of that reunion and mutual recognition in an eternal state, where the changes of time and the blight of death can never enter!

The

But, in addition to the natural promptings of sentiment and feeling, the appropriate burial of the dead is a subject of deep interest on many accounts. It is fraught with moral and religious uses, which the thoughtful will readily interpret. It is enforced by considerations, which, though of a less refined character, are absolutely imperative. strong law of necessity leaves us little choice in this matter. The great destroyer is ever busy. A generation of men passes away in less than half the "threescore years and ten allotted to men. Thrice in a century all the generations of the dwellers on the earth are changed, by death. In

[ocr errors]

"Heu! quanto minus est cum reliquis versari, quam tui meminisse." Byron's version of the same beautiful thought is as much less graceful, as it is more paraphrastic.

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »