534 THE CRYSTAL : A RECORD OF 1665. 



The living sat down in dlence among their dead, and silently, with- 

 out a groan or tear, brought them forth and laid them down before 

 their doors, when the rumbling dead-cart drew nigh, and the cry was 

 heard of " Bring out your dead your dead !" Call not this hardened 

 feeling, Thomas. It was the mere stupor of despair. When that is 

 over when the survivors awake to the feeling of common life, and 

 look around on their desolate homes, then will the choking sigh arise 

 at the thought of their dead ones, and then will the hot tear fall 

 down for them. 



And again, speaking of that cry to which we are now so accus- 

 tomed, I know nothing more horrible than the coolness and indif- 

 ference which these cartmen have, from use, obtained in their fearful 

 occupation. They have all now got a knack of singing forth that 

 dreadful song, in much the same tone as that in which the common 

 cries of fish and milk are muttered " Bring out your dead your 

 dead !" That horrible cry, and the more horrible manner in which 

 it is sent forth, would tingle in my ears were I to live to eternity. 

 Thank God, I shall not ! My little portion of life is nearly expended 

 now. 



We are now in the next stage of general feeling. The people have 

 awakened in part from the stupor in which they lay. They have 

 awakened, not to lamentation, but to despair, in form move reckless 

 and active than the foregoing. They seemed to think all at once, as 

 the opinion of one man, " There is no hope, no mercy none ; we 

 must all die soon. What boots, then, these restraints this seclusion 

 of man from his friends and fellows, since there is no redemption 

 from the fixed and certain doom." Those, therefore, who were shut 

 up, with the death-mark on their doors, broke forth ; and many of 

 the wretches were slain in attempting to prevent them. The same 

 sort of reasoning led those who were still free to concert willingly in 

 the offices of society, friendship, and religion, with those in whose 

 houses the plague was known to have been, or still to be. But men 

 in their salutations are no longer wont to ask of each other's health. 

 They neither say, " How are you ?" I ask not, nor say how I am. It 

 is certain we must all go ; so it matters not who is sick or who is 

 sound. 



Oh, what a preacher is calamity, my brother ! The first impulse 

 of most, however scoffing, or vain, or profligate before, was to go to 

 the churches. They went in crowds ; and to thousands whom the 

 churches could not hold, the silenced, and other Puritan ministers, 

 preached in the open air to the living, often with the unburied dead 

 around. Great numbers of the regular clergy having fled or died, 

 many of these ministers preached also in the churches, often by invi- 

 tation from the proper officers, and always without opposition or hin- 

 drance from them. In these congregations the people mingle without 

 discrimination. No man seems much to care if he knows the person 

 next him has the plague ; and no man stirs from his place if, as often 

 happens, his next neighbour falls down dying or dead beside him. 

 May God grant that these terrible visitations, and the tears and groans 

 with which they listen to the strong words of these holy and devoted 

 men, may have an abidingly useful effect on the minds of the sur- 



