Introduction 



Many subjects of transcendent importance are 

 shrouded in inherited misconceptions and vague 

 prejudices. They await congenial temperaments, in- 

 dustry, and the peculiar intelligence necessary to pre- 

 sent them in their true lights, tempered to compre- 

 hensions fatigued by the incessant cares of active life. 

 Some of these appeal to the loftiest conceptions 

 and emotions ; they protrude themselves with such 

 force as to overwhelm the disposition to lay them 

 aside for consideration at a more convenient season. 

 Dr. Buckner has chosen one of the most touching 

 of them, confronting us with duties and responsi- 

 bilities, of which we have been scarcely conscious, 

 and has been successful in catching the discordant 

 tones and arranging them in a pleasing symphony. 



He reminds us that nothing is annihilated in 

 the processes of nature ; even in death there is a 

 mere diffusion or rupture in the relationship of cer- 

 tain chemical elements of which the body is com- 



*7 



