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and flattery of epitaphs are thus avoided, none but good men having been selected, whose virtues, if they are recorded, can be perpetuated with truth,

SECTION III,

They discard also mourning garments—These are only emblems of sorrow-and often make men pretend to be what they are not-This contrary to Christianity-Thus they may become little better than disguised pomp, or fashionable forms

-This instanced in the changes and duration of common mourning-and in the custom of courtmourning-Ramifications of the latter.

As the Quakers neither allow of the tomb-stones nor the monumental inscriptions, so they do not allow of the mourning garments of the world.

They believe there can be no true sorrow but in the heart, and that there can be no other true outward way of showing it, than by fulfilling the desires, and by imitating the best actions, of those whom men have lost and loved. "The mourning," says

William

William Penn, "which it is fit for a Christian to have on the departure of beloved relations and friends, should be worn in the mind, which is only sensible of the loss. And the love which men have had to these, and their remembrance of them, should be outwardly expressed by a respect to their advice, and care of those they have left behind them, and their love of that which they loved."

But mourning garments, the Quakers contend, are only the emblems of sorrow. They will therefore frequently be used where no sorrow is. Many persons follow their deceased relatives to the grave, whose death, in point of gain, is a matter of real joy; witness young spendthrifts, who have been raising sum after sum on expectation, and calculating with voracious anxiety the probable duration of their relations' lives: and yet all these follow the

corpse to the grave with white handkerchiefs,

mourning habits, slouched hats, and dangling hat-bands. Mourning garments, therefore, frequently make men pretend to be what they are not. But no true or consistent Christian can exhibit an outward ap

pearance

pearance to the world, which his inward feelings do not justify.

It is not contended here by the Quakers, that, because a man becomes occasionally a hypocrite, this is a sufficient objection against any system; for a man may be an Atheist even in a Quaker's garb. Nor is it insinuated that individuals do not sometimes feel in their hearts the sorrow which they propose to signify by their clothing. But it is asserted to be true, that men, who use mourning habits as they are generally used, do not wear them for those deceased persons only whom they loved, and abstain from the use of them where they had no esteem, but that they wear them promiscuously on all the occasions which have been dictated by fashion. Mourning habits, therefore, in consequence of a long system of etiquette, have become, in the opinion of the Quakers, but little better than disguised pomp or fashionable forms.

I shall endeavour to throw some light upon this position of the Quakers, by looking into the practice of the world.

In the first place, there are seasons there when full mourning, and seasons when only

half mourning, is to be worn.

Thus the

habit is changed, and for no other reason than that of conformity with the laws of fashion. The length of the time, also, or season of mourning is made to depend upon the scale of men's affinity to the deceased; though nothing can be more obvious, than that men's affection for the living, and their sorrow for them when dead, cannot be measured by this standard. Hence the very time that a man shall mourn, and the very time that he shall only half mourn, and the very time that he shall cease to mourn, are fixed for him by the world, whatever may be the duration of his own sorrow.

In court mourning, also, we have an instance of men being instructed to mourn, where their feelings are neither interested nor concerned. In this case the disguised pomp, spoken of by the Quakers, will be more apparent. Two princes have perhaps been fighting with each other for a considerable portion of their reign. The blood of their subjects has been spilt, and their treasures have been exhausted. They have probably had, during all this time, no kind disposition one towards another, each considering

4

sidering the other as the aggressor, or as the author of the war. When both have been wearied out with expense, they have made peace. But they have still mutual jealousies and fears. At length one of them dies. The other, on receiving an express relative to the event, orders mourning for the deceased for a given time. As other potentates receive the intelligence, they follow the example. Their several levees, or drawing-rooms, or places of public audience, are filled with mourners. Every individual of each sex, who is accustomed to attend them, is now habited in black. Thus a round of mourning is kept up by the courtiers of Europe, not by means of any sympathetic beating of the heart, but at the sound as it were of the postman's horn.

But let us trace this species of mourning further, and let us now look more particularly at the example of our own country, for the elucidation of the position in question. The same gazette, which gave birth to this black influenza at court, spreads it still further. The private gentlemen of the land undertake to mourn also. You see them accordingly in the streets, and in private parties, and at public places, in their mourning ha

bits.

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