 | This, that and the other |  |
SEPULCHRES.
I wonder if there is any human heart which has not its own
grave-yard, — its tombs, and monuments, and haunted houses —
its sepulchres, from which the buried hopes come out at midnight,
like sheeted ghosts?
There be coffins of gold, and coffins of silver; and there lie
dead bodies, white and ghastly, wrapped only in winding-sheets
of pride.
Sometimes memory-bells toll over the unquiet sleepers, and
other hopes and loves say a solemn mass for the repose of the
dead. But yet the spectres will come out upon the “Ghost's
Walk;” and though, in the careless day-time, we can pass
them by with a “God bless you,” such as the Swedes give to a
sneezing traveller, in the night they do lay cold hands upon our
brows, and startle us strangely, making us close our eyes against
the vision, and mutter prayers and Ave Marias!
There be often grave-yards, — solemn ones, — behind holy
country churches, where the dead go to sleep within the sound
of the organ on holy-days and festivals, and the harmonies of the
church-choirs singing together. There be crosses and monuments
over them, which the country people twine round with wreaths
and garlands, and there the village sexton says, “The dead
sleep well!”
There be others still, in the great city, where the dome frowns
passing traveller like a spell.
There, above hearts that once were quick with life, are strange
shapes of mighty warriors in bronze and marble, gleaming
swords, and the presence of a brooding human pride.
We can look on them calmly; for never do the graves open,
never do the warriors in bronze and marble totter on their pedestals,
and the church-clock ticks in their presence, and the church-bell
rings!
But the sepulchres in the grave-yards of our hearts have
yawning mouths, and from them comes silently many a Lazarus,
with a frown upon his brow. There is no power, no spell, to
lay the spirit. Star-beam and moon-beam stream in vain over
the sepulchres of our hearts, — the shrines and altars where are
only the ashes of desolation!
| This, that and the other | |