CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. HITCHCOCK. 137 



all that belongs to yours, with the addition of what a mother 

 only can know. 



But perhaps we are selfish in mourning so deeply for 

 those that are " bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh " ; 

 for it is the irreversible order of Providence, that we must 

 lament or be lamented, and the only condition of protracted 

 life is the chance of new sorrows from the death of those 

 whom we love. The sooner we come to the habitual con- 

 templation of the absolute uncertainty of all our possessions, 

 and to an unqualified resignation of mind to part with them 

 whenever called for the better. 



The death of infants, and of other very young children, 

 is always attended (in my view) with so much consolation, 

 that I can look upon the calm, sweet expression of their 

 little bodies sleeping in death (not excepting even my own 

 children) with a degree of pleasure which has little alloy. 

 For I consider the declarations of our Saviour, as deciding 

 the point that his sacrifice will cancel their original taint, 

 and neither Scripture nor reason will justify us in believing 

 that there will hereafter be a penal retribution awarded to 

 anything but actual transgression. The death of half man- 

 kind within the age to which I allude, I consider as evincive 

 of the mercy of God to our fallen world, in removing so 

 large a part of its population before they have become, in 

 any responsible sense, moral agents. I know that these 

 views interfere with metaphysical divinity, which I value 

 little compared with the consolations which I think I have 

 a right to draw from the Scriptures. I am very sorry your 

 anxiety should have been increased by unskilful medical 

 practice, but I have followed to the grave four of my own 

 little flock, whom the skill of the wisest and most devoted 

 physicians could not save 



TO DR. EDWARD HITCHCOCK. 



NEW HAVEN, July 27, 1825. 

 MY DEAR SIR, I have been compelled by unavoidable 



