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Show CREMATION. ' Tho scientists and reformers of : Europe are now eng.igctlin discussing the relative merits of the undent and the modern modes of disposing of the bodies of the dead, and somo very 1 prominent writers and public men and women also -in this country, have taken up the subject of controversy, contro-versy, with an earnestness, on the one sido, that promises fair to iuaugurate cremation as a substitute for interment. inter-ment. Among civilized nations within the ken of our historical lore, there have been but three prevailing funeral r'.tes mummification, incineration , or cremation, and interment. The Egyptians, from the remotest period of history down to the sixth century, adopted the first named order, and by a process of embalming, the knowledge knowl-edge of which seems now entirely lost, their dead were preserved in form for many generations. It is easy to comprehend that in course of ages, the immense multiplication of mummies was certain to lead to the abandonment of tl is male of disposing dispos-ing of the dead, for with the demand for space of habitation fur the living, there could not forever be accorded so much room for the dead. It is s;iid that for a space of fifty fquim-leagues, fquim-leagues, the immense plain extending i around the great pyramids of Eypt is "one mws of mummy;'' and a few years ao we read the statement that un one of the newly-constructed Egy p tian ra i 1 roads , 1 1 1 u m in i es h id been as freely used for Fad fur the locomotives as coal or wood in Europe or America. The Greeks and Romans disposed of their dead, both in burning on the pyre built of wood and ly interment in the ground. The former was, however, how-ever, the mast aristocratic and fashionable fash-ionable mode, hence in all the great classic plays, stilt represented on the modern stage, the ashes of the dead arc certain to find some representation representa-tion In a costly urn. In Unit beautiful beauti-ful Roman play of .Virginius, the author au-thor exhibits the power and influence that the ashes of the dead had over the demented lather, who in tho intensity in-tensity of his affection for his daughter Virginia, had slain her with his own hand rather than she should become the polluted victim of the despot Ap-pius Ap-pius Claudius. Tor facility of disposition, dispo-sition, and for the sacred uses of religious re-ligious ceremony, the incine ration of the dead way certainly the most con-1 venient, whether the most proper or' not. -- At the first mention ot cremation, or the burning of the dead, tiiero is something in the words so repugnant to our sentiments educated by tho show of funeral pomp, and the usages of our own day that we see but tho one terrible fact of consuming the body by fire, and wc instinctively revolt re-volt against the ideaof consigning the-forms the-forms of our loved ones to the flames; but this, after all, is only the result of association and education; for nothing noth-ing can well be more repulsive to tho affectionate heart than the consignment consign-ment of a lovely darling the little ungel of the household, to tho cold clay of the graveyard, where that! angel of loveliness is to become a prey for the worms of the dust, and to moulder and waste away. It in only tho funeral service, tho show of mourning and the consolations of religion that make interment ut any timo supportablo to the bereaved. Let these all be dispensed with and tho actual fact of burying the dead only i cniaiu, and the wailing nnd dis-i tractions of the a ft lie ted would be in supportable. The ancients who preferred In adopt incineration for the disposal of their dead w tie us sensitive ns Uiohm who accepted interment in tin; ground and in the one case tho pomp of funeral rites were as grand in the 1 former as in tho latter. Among tho , titled and wealthy the processions were arranged with great circ and at great oxpense. They occurred usually at night. A band of music ( headed the procession and niournors ( were hired to lament and sing the fun- I oral songs, hi an ua and conn try 1 where slavery existed, to tho freed- j men of the deceased wearing tho cap ; of liberty, the first place was ijiven -and these often were in great numbers num-bers according to tho wealth and fj station of tho departed, then followed ( others in tho procession wearing , waxon mtwka representing , tho an- 1 ccstry of tho deceased they had L gouo before, and tho curpsn was " borne behind then, by tho relatives; 1 tho family follow.,! uOcr, the men with ho.vh covered unl the 1 women with heads uncovered, with huir disheveled and weeping nnd wail- ,, jug. After tho funeral oration was over, tho corpse with tho couch upon which it was homo was laid upon the funeral pyvo and thenearcst relative, with face turned away from Oho work to bo done, apphftl the u.ioh, kind led the pyre and pcrfutnes.oils, articles of food.clothing and everything that could indicato re.-poct fur the dead and aid to the spirit in its thitherward journey to a better h ibil.Uio-i woro showoru.l upon up-on the blazing faggots in rich abundance. abun-dance. ' VVIicn 'the body was consumed consum-ed the embers were extinguished with wine, the bones nnd ashes care! fully and sacredly gathered by ; the nearest of kin, t-prinkled with perfumes, and placed in a richly ornamented urn, and these in due course- of lime were phced in sepulchres or family vaults. Of tho pomp and fashion of modern funerals nothing need be said, us with thesa wc are all, at some time or other, oth-er, unhappily acquaint at. but of tho im press iveness of the usages of our own day over that of ancient times, just described, there is room for doubt. Probably tho ceremonies of the ancients anci-ents were more elaborate and mere' lasting as reminiscences. This is not, however, the point of modern discussion, discus-sion, and the allusion to the past here has only been made to disabuse the reader's mind from the first repugnant thought against the proposed change from interment to cremation. Tho subject to-day is considered more from a utilitarian standpoint than from any grander demonstration of respect for the dead. The population of the earth is increasing, great cities are rising up all over the world, and the question of disposing of the dead is one deserving of serious attention. Wo shnll re-ur to this again. , |