84 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



amphitheatre in which the services were performed, will be suffi- 

 cient testimony to its worth and beauty. Neither is it in our 

 power to furnish any adequate description of the effect produced 

 by the music of the thousand voices which joined in the hj'mn 

 as it swelled in chastened melody from the bottom of the glen, 

 and, like the spirit of devotion, found an echo in every heart, and 

 pervaded the whole scene." 



' ' Mount Auburn has been little known to the citizens of Bos- 

 ton ; but it has now become holy ground, and 



4 Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain,' 



a village of the quick and the silent, where Nature throws an air 

 of cheerfulness over the labors of Death, will soon be a place of 

 more general resort, both for ourselves and for strangers, than any 

 other spot in the vicinity. Where else shall we go with the mus- 

 ings of sadness, or for the indulgence of grief; where to cool the 

 burning brow of ambition, or relieve the swelling heart of dis- 

 appointment? We can find no better spot for the rambles of 

 curiosity, health, or pleasure, none sweeter for the whispers of 

 affection among the living, none lovelier for the last rest of our 

 kindred." 



Truly, the two thousand assembled on that day did 

 stand on holy ground, an<J that which will remain sa- 

 cred forever. They found it good, on that memorable 

 day, to go to the house of mourning. It was a kind of 

 sabbath, and fitted them for the approaching rest of 

 holy time. Far-seeing men and women engaged in the 

 solemnities of that day ; but their work has proved 

 more interesting and important than their high expecta- 

 tions pronounced it at that time, and wave after wave 

 of interest swells over the silent and now populous city 

 of the dead, and will thus continue until " the angel 

 shall swear, by Him that liveth /or ever and ever, that 

 time shall be no longer." 



