He who has watched the sun in its bright 

 course through the firmament and seen it 

 gradually decline until it went down in daric- 

 ness beneath the horizon may turn from the 

 contemplation with no feelings of sorrow or 

 regret, for he knows that the period of its 

 absence is mercifully ordained as a season of 

 necessary repose to him and to all, and that 

 the morrow will restore its beams to revive 

 and reanimate all nature. But if the last de- 

 clining ray which struck upon his eyelids had 

 brought to him the conviction that he had 

 gazed for the last time upon the sun in the 

 heaven; that henceforward there was to be 

 no more rising nor setting, no morning nor 

 evening, nor light, nor heat, no effulgent day, 

 with all its glorious beauties and excellencies, 

 but night and darkness, unrelieved save by the 

 twinkling stars, were to be the law of earth 

 forever — with what sensations would the poor 

 wanderer view that last setting of the sun? 



With feelings somewhat akin to those I 

 have imagined we behold the death of the 

 great and good whom we love and reverence. 

 But now they were here with all the generous 

 impulses and excelling virtues that dignify and 

 adorn humanity clustering thickly around 

 them. We rejoiced in their presence, we 

 were better under their benignant influence, 

 we were happy in their smiles ; we felt that it 

 was day and looked not into the future. They 

 are gone. The places of earth shall know 



