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MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS
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The Peroration of the Rev . T . Madges Sermon ? delivered at the Octagon Chapel f Norwich , on Wednesday , the JQth Nov . 1817 , the Day of the Interment of the Princess Charlotte-# # ¦* * * ¦ ' * ' ¦ * * These are the reflections which the
events of human life are for ever forcing upon our attention ; but if ever there was one time rather than another when they came upon the mind in their most powerful form , —if ever there was one time rather
than another when earthly glory appeared like a dream , and beauty as a flower that fadeth , and the brightest of human hopes as the early dew of the morning which glitters for a moment and then vanishes from our sight , ment and then vanishes from our sight ,
that . time is the present . The death of persons , high in rank and splendid in station , furnishes to the moralist a theme ibrdescanting upon the emptiness of human pride , and the instability of human riches , and the nothingness of human power . " Man in his best
estate ,- —not in poverty and weakness and wretchedness , but in opulence and honour and power , —man in his best estate is altogether vanity . Greatness may , perhaps , be able to raise a blade of grass a little higher , and to clothe it with a deeper verdure than its equals , but it cannot alter its nature . It cannot make it less frail , less
exposed , less short-lived . AH flesh is as grass , and all the glory of man as the flower of grass . The grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away . " * But these are not among the first thoughts that arise in the mind on the view of that melancholy
occasion which has arrayed this place in the funereal garb , and covered the whole nation with gloom . You , my friends , appear here in the outward forms and symbols of mourning—and I am sure that I speak your feelings ,
as well as my own , when I say that never , except where our own immediate friends and connexions were involved , never were those forms more truly emblematical of the sorrow which is passing within . We feel this event , not merely , nor perhaps chiefly Aspland ' s Sermon for Fox , pp . 16 and 18 .
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as members of the political community , ( though as such we have no mean cause for lamentation ;) but we feel it rather as human beings . It comes home to our bosoms in the most touching and affecting form . Our human nature is moved at the
contemplation . We grieve . not merely that one so exalted and so rich in promises should thus suddenly be cut off and laid low in the dust ; we grieve not merely for the destruction of a nation ' s stay , and the loss of that spot in the political horizon upon which the patriot ' s eye was wont delightedly
to rest , but we mourn that one so young , so interesting , so free from the common vices attendant upon her station , so pure in her domestic morals , so amiable and kind and bountiful , should be taken away in the midst of all her goodness , and in the spring * time of her happiness , and at the dawn of the most beautiful of human
hopes , —we mourn that at this time the cup of earthly blessedness should be taken from her hands , and her lips sealed in the silence and coldness of death . It is an alarming and afflicting event ; and if it do not so appear to
us , —if it do not move our minds to thoughtfulness , and tinge our hearts with sadness , and carry on our views to something higher and better than what lies within the limits of this world , we shew ourselves insensible
to one of the most awe-striking visitations of Providence , and we prove ourselves to be as destitute of the common wisdom as of the common sympathies of our nature . For it is the part of wisdom to listen to the voice which tells us in solemn accents
that , notwithstanding all our care and anxiety , and in spite of all our , efforts and skill , surrounded as we may be with all that power can command or wealth procure , our hopes may yet be scattered abroad like the leaves of the
forest at the first cold blast of winter , and all our time-built happiuess perish as the bursting of a bubble . It is thq part of wisdom to impress this event deeply upon our minds , and to make such a lodgment of it within our memories that it may sometimes rise up amidst the gladness of the feast and the joy of the harp , to scare our
Miscellaneous Communications
MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS
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C 705 )
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VOL . XII . 4 V
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1817, page 705, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2471/page/9/
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