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shall walk and not faint," and new zeal and energy will mark their way, whilst they sing

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"Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,
Each in his narrow cell for ever laid."-GRAY.

How different is a funeral in a town or city from one in the country. Whoever has mingled in this solemnity, under both circumstances, must not only have seen but felt the difference. In towns, funeral sare frequent; and to such an extent do people become accustomed to the sight of the crape at the door, the hearse, and the solemn procession along the street, that these scarcely wake a thought or excite an emotion. Crowds pass it on the street in pursuit of business; women and children look out from the windows with feelings perhaps little different from those they would have if it were any other kind of procession.

Then, too, every thing has a formal business aspect. Those that follow in the train of the mourners have all been specially invited. This is the custom. A small note, printed or written, according to the pecuniary disposition or ability of the family, is brought to your house, often stuck in under your door: "Yourself and family are respectfully invited to attend the funeral of A. B., tomorrow afternoon at 4 o'clock." This is cold, it strikes us. Such love as is to be shown by an attendance upon the closing scenes of the life of a neighbor and acquaintance ought to be spontaneous, free. Those that gather ought to do so uninvited, to show their respect for the dead, and to express their sympathy with the living who sorrow over their departed friends and kindred.

It is not so in the country. There, sincerity and true sympathy draw neighbors to the house of mourning. No printed Lotices are needed. In a short time it has gone, in a solemn and subdued report, over the whole neighborhood, and every one knows that "to-morrow there will be a funeral!"

The digging of the grave is no business transaction, for which pay is offered and taken. Kind and feeling neighbors go and open the earth. It is a solemn pleasure! It is a last kindness, done in a spirit of sympathetic sorrow! It would be regarded sacralege to think of wages in connection with such an act.

The solemn hour arrives. Not just at the hour, as though no time could be lost, but a good hour before the burial is to take place

the more distant neighbors are already coming in their substantial carriages. From all directions, across the fields; they comewhole families, parents and children, large and small together. In small groups, on the porch around the house, at the barn, under the trees, they stand together in subdued conversation. There is no levity, no careless, thoughtless roving about-all speak and act as becometh the place. A neighbor has gone to his long home!

At length the movements near the house indicate that the time has fully come. All move towards the open door. There strong men are bearing the coffin out of the house. Chairs are placed at proper distance from each other, upon which the coffin is placed. The joiner opens the lid once more, and the friends gather around to take a last look. Alas, they alone can fully feel the deep, sacred grief of that moment. The heart knoweth its own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with it.

The coffin is closed for the last time; slowly it is closed as if reluctantly and sadly. Then the deep swell of grief in the hearts of the mourners subsides into a gentle flow, as the solemn voice of the pastor falls upon the ear. We must not forget to observe, that with the first words of the man of God every head is uncovered; and the aged, moved thereto by a beautiful traditional custom, hold up their hats against one side of the head, listening devoutly to every word. How soothing is the effect upon those stricken and sorrowing hearts when the whole assembly join in singing, we may say with devout cheerfulness:

Hear what the voice from heaven declares

To those in Christ who die!

Released from all their earthly cares,
They reign with him on high.

Then why lament departed friends,
Or shake at death's alarms?

Death 's but the servant Jesus sends
To call us to his arms.

The graves of all his saints he blessed,
When in the grave he lay;

And rising thence, their hopes he raised
To everlasting day!

A short prayer from the pastor, and the procession moves slowly away towards the family grave-yard, or the country church. Here the solemnity reaches its highest point. Here the long loved and familiar form passes out of sight! The deepest sympathy here pervades the whole assembly. Was it not under similar circumstances that "Jesus wept," when in company with the family of Bethany he became one of the mourners for Lazarus? "Jesus groaning in himself cometh to the grave!" O, what a deep feeling of the sad effects of the fall, and of the vanity of human life, steals over the spirit, when, with the sharp strike of the spade,

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and the dull heavy sound of falling clay upon the boards below, is heard the dirging of moved hearts after the well known words

"Hark! from the tomb a doleful sound !"

All is a sad and impressive commentary on the words already spoken, "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust!" The only thing that causes the bent mourner to lift up his heart to a ray of hope, is in the sentence, "Looking for the general resurrection Hnd the life of the world to come through Jesus Christ our Lord!" aere is light that falls into the darkest spot of earth, from the world beyond.

It is not uncommon at a funeral in the country to see others bathed in tears besides the relatives of the departed. This gives a feature of earnestness and sincerity to the scene for which we look in vain in the formal city burials. These solemnities being so seldom witnessed are beyond measure impressive. Then, too, there is something in the awful stillness of the country as it lies around, which gives one a deep and indescribable sense of the nearness of things not seen. One feels, for the moment, as if all the world were together, and had become silent, solemn, and devout in the presence of death.

A scene like this not only makes a deep but also a very lasting impression, especially upon the young, and upon children. Let any one, whose early recollections are associated with country scenes, refer back to early life. How well are those early funerals remembered! How solemn then did death appear! At no period of after life has the death of another so solemnly affected our hearts.

We are tempted to say, it seems a privilege to live and die in the country. Life there, is perhaps not so enterprising, not so fast as in towns and cities, but it is far more safe. It has not the same restlessness, the same vanity, the same snares. It has deeper friendships, it has truer sympathies, it has a more sincere and implicit love. Its bliss is not so boisterous, but far surer and more enduring. Life there has more reliable surroundings, and death is bound back to life with more and stronger cords of affectionate remembrance. Wherever the waves of life may toss us we shall not cease, “when memory wakes her busy train," to live over again the solemn scenes of our early life in the country; and especially shall we ever feel anew how death in early life affected us. Then a funeral in the country was deeply solemn, now the remembrance of it is "mournfully pleasant.'

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HOME.-How pleasant is the thought of home!"the place of all places." "Tis sweet to think, and a blessing to all, to be possessed of a little home, around which we can gather the sweets and pleasures of life uninterrupted.

SYMPATHETISCHE KUENSTE-SYMPATHETIC ARTS; AMULETS, CHARMS, TELESMS OR TALISMEN, UNLUCKY DAYS.*

BY 1. D. RUPP.

THE belief in witches, and faith in sympathetic arts, amulets, magic wands, charms and spells, is closely affiliated. Homer, the father of Greek poets, speaks of the cure of wounds, and of blood staunched by the secrets of magic and by enchantments. Homer's Iliad IV. Pindar says, that the centaur Chiron cured by enchantments. Pindar's Ode IV. Theocritus, Catullus and Virgil teach magic verses to make one beloved. Theophrastus affirms there are magical verses that cure sciatica. Cato repeats some verses against luxations. Cato de Rustic 6: 160. Varro admits that some of these verses are powerful against the gout.†

The Iatraleptic method of curing disease is thrown into the shade by these choberim, or charms. Great power has been, and is still ascribed to amulets, and charms. The Ephesians, whose city Pliny styles, "The ornament of Asia," had great foith in the Ephesia Grammata, which formerly were six, but whose numbers has been increased by certain deceivers. There names were:

Askion-ie.

Kataskion,

Lix,

Darkness,
Light,
The Earth,

The Year,

Tetrax,

Damnameus,

Aision,

The Sun,

Truth—Tauta oun iera este

kai agia-i. e., these are holy and sacred things. According to Grotius, if these letters were pronounced with certain intonations of voice, they were effectual in expelling diseases or evil spirits; or which, by being written on parchment and worn on the body of a person, operated as amulets or charms to guard against evi! spirits, or against danger. The magicians, says Plutarch, compel

*By permission, from Rupp's MS. "History of the Germans in America." From such specimens the interesting character of the Author's forthcoming work may be judged.-ED. GUARD.

The Hebrew word Chober, usually translated charm, derived from the Latin Carmen, is a verse supposed to possess an occult power. In ancient times there were persons who charmed or lulled to inactivity. Jeremiah 8: 17, alludes to such. Virgil, Ecelog VIII: 71, says Frigidus anguis, in pratis, rumpitur cantando. The cold snake in the meadow is burst by charming.

Clemen's Alexandrianus, Strom. Lib. v. cap. 8.

Amulet, in barbarous Latin amuletum, or amoletum, a certain combination of letters written on parchment, linen, or piper, worn about the person to ward off dangers, diseases, &c. The Kamea of the Jews; the Greek Philacteries with passages from the Bible; the Fetishes, stripes of parchment, with sentences from the Koran, which the Moorish priests sell to the negroes of Africa, are amulets. If we believe St. Chrysostom, these things were worn to some extent by the first converts to Christianity.

those who are possessed with a demon to recite and pronounce these letters in a certain order. It is also recorded that "when Milesius could not prevail, because his antagonist had the Ephesian letters bound to his heels; when this was discovered, and the letters taken away, it is reported that Milesius threw him thirty times." Plinius, the elder, wore amulets as a protection against thunder and lightning. The ancient Germans, according to Tacitus, wore amulets: "They worship the mother of the gods; they carry about them the figures of wild boars as the symbol of their superstition. This amulet, supplying the place of all arms and other defences, supports the lover of the goddess even through the enemies safely." Germania cap. xiv.

Some of the German immigrants had faith in similar things; and not a few of their descendants, and more recent immigrants, believe in sympathetic arts and unlucky days. Books on these subjects are very common. Johann George Hohman's "Lang Verborgner Freund,"* and Hailman & Winebrenner's "Centenary Almanac," are frequently consulted by the superstitious.

* *

One of the publishers alluded to, says: "I place myself upon the broad platform of the liberty of the press and of conscience, in regard to this useful book."*" **"And I ask thee again, oh, friend, male or female, is it not to my everlasting praise, that I have had such books printed? Do I not deserve the rewards of God for it?" He asseverates most seriously, and those who tried his amulets or charms, that they have effectually cured diseases, guarded persons who wore them on their bodies against the baneful influence of witches and demons; extinguish fire without water. A few, of scores in the books before the writer, can only be exhibited in this connection.

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"You must write all the above on a piece of white paper, and carry it about you."

"To extinguish fire without water.

"Write the following letters upon each side of a plate, and throw it into fire, and it will be extinguished forthwith:

* The first edition of this book was printed in Reading, 1819. † Harrisburg edition, pp. 7, 8. English translation.

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