FUNERAL FLOWERS. 141 
song which awakes the lark at morn may lull 
the dying at evening to reposeand also 
that— 
“The sweetest flower in pleasure’s path 
Will bloom on sorrow’s grave.”— John Clare. 
This life is uncertain, and full of vicissitudes ; 
its pleasures are short-lived and fleeting. Change 
is the element in which we move, breathe, and 
have our being, and no one can tell how soon 
the vital spark may be quenched within him— 
how soon sorrow may fall upon him, though he 
be now full of health, and life, and happiness. 
Therefore it is well to contemplate the tomb, 
and to be ever prepared for the life that is to 
come. The poet asks 
“ Beauteous flowers, why do ye spread 
Upon the monuments of the dead?”— Cowley. 
And we may answer, that we place them there 
as emblems of the frailty of human existence, 
and of the evanescent nature of its brightest 
enjoyments; they also serve to remind us of 
that better land, whither we hope the souls of 
the departed are gone. 
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