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with it. It is so horrible to think of the remaius we loved being 

 burnt. Xo one could endure it. To this we answer — 1st, that 

 men did endure it, and that it did not seem shocking to men of 

 old to make "great burnings" for the deceased. It is a mere 

 question of habit, and — 2nd, that if men did not shut their eyes to 

 what really happens to the bodies of their friends, cremation 

 would seem a much more decent fate than that which consigns 

 them to a putrefaction and destruction which I dare not describe. 

 We are obliged within a few hours to hide our dead out of our 

 sight, before we commit them to the unseen horrors of the grave. 

 That tlie old house should be ruined and dilapidated might cause 

 us a natural tear, but that it should be tenanted by such a crew is 

 more than we dare think of. Says Southey in his common-place 

 book, 4th Series, p. 195, "The nasty custom of interment makes 

 the idea of a dead friend more unpleasant. We think of the grave, 

 corruption, and worms. Burning would be much better." And 

 Southey's opinion has been shared by some of the best men of our 

 day, from the orthodox Lord Shaftesbury, and the learned and 

 excellent Sir Spencer WeUs, to all those modem lights of science, 

 Avho naturally advocate a plea so rational. 



I have brought this matter in all seriousness before this 

 Association, somewhat briefly, because I lioj^e for discussion ; not 

 so briefly, but that I have, I think, glanced at most of the great 

 arguments for it, and all the objections alleged against it. I have 

 not touched the mechanical question, because I am not competent 

 to speak on that part of the question. Suffice it to say that this 

 side has not been forgotten, and that furnaces are in existence, 

 which in an hour could, without injury or offence to the neighbour- 

 hood, return us the remains of those whom we loved, to be kept in 

 our homes in some receptacle which shall in beauty of design and 

 material, form a fitting resting-place for them. On the one hand 

 we have our present practice, which from beginning to end is 

 hideous and noxious ; we have the bodies of those who gave 

 themselves to do good in the world made by our present evil 

 arrangements the sources of distribution of disease and death. On 

 the other hand you have a process sanctioned by the customs of all 

 countries in old times, and only not perpetuated because of a 



