Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. DEDICATED то The Memory of One WHO HAS DEPARTED TO THE SILENT LAND; A MUCH-LOVED AND DEEPLY-LAMENted brother, whose THE GATHERING OF THESE LEAVES OF CONSOLATION. "Why, he but sleeps: If he be gone, he'll make his grave a bed. With fairest flowers, I'll sweeten thy sad grave. Thou shalt not lack Yea, and furred moss besides, when flowers are none PREFACE. "INTO the Silent Land!" Ah, who can say that the footsteps of none he once loved on earth have entered the "shadows of that pale realm"? Death, sooner or later, cometh to all: the white and venerable locks of the aged, the maturity of manhood, the ruddy freshness of youth, whose flashing eye is salient with life and health, and the tender bud of infancy,- all soon, too soon, fall before the scythe of the pitiless destroyer. "The air is full of farewells to the dying, No suffering, no anguish, is like unto that of the deeply heart-stricken mourner, as he bendeth over his forever-hushed, but beloved, dead. Often, at such times, the heart and soul, though wonderfully stirred, feels a grief “too deep for tears." A link of the chain that bound him to earth has been rudely riven; and the vanity of this life, the nearness of eternity, with its all-absorbing interests, are felt and acknowledged. Such sad visitations of Providence induce |