440 



remember Joseph but forgat him." I can but express my strong 

 wish that some of our rich men, upon whom Heaven with ample 

 means may in its kindness have conferred the far better gift, a 

 disposition to use them for the general welfare, will presently 

 provide effectually for this great object of public utility. 



XXIII. Mount Auburn, I cannot quit the privileged and im- 

 proved county of Middlesex, without adverting to this beautiful 

 retreat, which owes all its natural and local attractions to its rural 

 embellishments. I confess I am drawn to it by still stronger ties, 

 for there sleep under its green banks and its waving boughs, 

 those who were as dear to me as any thing this side Heaven ; 

 and there, too, side by side with them, it is my consolation to 

 think, I shall, myself, repose, when my days' humble work is 

 done, and I fall like the leaf by the autumnal blast. 



This cemetery, embracing now more than a hundred acres 

 of land, of most varied surface and aspect, was originally in- 

 tended, under the auspices of the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society, for an experimental garden as well as burying place ; 

 but it is now exclusively devoted to the last object. It abounds 

 with elegant monuments of taste and touching testimonials of 

 affection ; and with singular beauty intermingles the charms 

 of floral culture with the untrained wildness of nature. Its 

 silent walks, its shaded retreats, its calm waters are all sacred 

 to tender and reverential sentiments ; its monuments, from the 

 simple rough stone to the marble, chiseled by the touches of 

 exquisite art, are all eloquent ; and it exhibits every where the 

 affectionate offerings of the heart to that idol, which Heaven, 

 in its mercy to our weakness, permits us to adore, the precious 

 memory of the beloved and revered dead. 



It shows, too, most emphatically, that strong passion for ru- 

 ral beauty which the Creator seems to have made instinctive in 

 the heart ; and that spontaneous acknowledgment of the charms 

 of the country, which the deep absorption of business or the 

 dissipations of city life cannot extinguish, nor even so far abate, 

 but that the mind reverts to them as the most favored elements 



