138 



DOMESTIC AFFLICTION. 



[1824. 



gazing at the seal, without sufficient resolution to break it. At length 

 a silent monitor within me seemed to say, in a tone of reproach, " Are 

 you not a man ?" I rallied my senses, and exclaimed aloud, " Yes, I 

 am a man, and one whose firmness is not to be shaken by danger or 

 affliction, come in what shape they may. All that man can bear I can 

 suffer with calmness." 



The utterance of this vaunting speech instantly stilled the violent 

 tremor of my nerves, and restored my wonted coolness. My hands 

 trembled not as I broke the sable seal — I was perfectly calm and col- 

 lected while I opened and unfolded the letter — my lips quivered not as 

 I read the date and the words " My dear Son." I dropped my eyes 

 to the fourth line below — a cloud came over the rest — and where was 

 my boasted manhood 1 



My wife and two children — comprising all my little family — were 

 no more ! They had for some time been mouldering in the dust, and 

 I knew it not ! I was alone in the world ! like a tree on the desert, 

 stripped of its branches ! I had long anticipated a joyous meeting, 

 and this was the result ! I remember heaving a groan — almost a 

 shriek burst from my bosom. The rest is all a blank. 



I afterward learned that some of the family entered my room for 

 the purpose of summoning me to tea, in about an hour after the servant 

 had delivered me the letter. They found me seated in an arm-chair, 

 as they thought, a lifeless corpse. Their screams of terror soon 

 brought the rest of the family to the scene of alarm, and the usual 

 restoratives were promptly applied. Medical aid was procured as 

 speedily as possible ; and in about an hour I began to evince some 

 indications of returning consciousness. At half-past seven my sight and 

 recollection partially returned. I saw about a dozen people of both 

 sexes about me, but could not for some time fully comprehend my real 

 situation. When I did awake to a full sense of it, my reason was 

 shaken from its throne, and they say I raved like a maniac — alternately 

 calling for my wife and children to come to me, and relieve me from 

 my torments. This paroxysm, however, was of short duration, and 

 I gradually became more rational and calm. I now perceived that 

 every eye in the room was streaming with tears, except my own. Mine 

 were dry and hot, and my throat was parching. 



Explanation was unnecessary : they had seen the fatal letter lying 

 on the floor, and a very natural and pardonable curiosity had prompted 

 them to seek in that for the cause of my situation. Their sympathy 

 operated like a cordial to my feelings ; and now, for the first time, 1 

 could have wept — but the idea of its being unmanly prevented me • 

 and this unnatural struggle against overpowering feelings procrastinated 

 my recovery, and might, in fact, have been the proximate cause of my 

 fit in the first instance. But I had imbibed from my earliest infancy 

 an idea, very prevalent among the hardy sons of New-England, espe- 

 cially those who are destined to buffet the billows of Neptune, that a 

 tear on a masculine cheek evinces a weakness incompatible with daring 

 enterprises. I know it is an error ; but it is one that has assisted in 

 making many fine seamen and excellent soldiers. I have often suffered 



