Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

OPE, THOMAS, an English novelist and antiquarian; born at London about 1770; died

there, February 3, 1831. His great riches enabled him to travel in Europe, Asia, and Africa, studying ancient and mediæval architecture, and collecting statuary, paintings, and bric-à-brac. On his return to England he bought a house in London, and one near Dorking, and stored them with his treasures, and became a liberal patron of the fine arts. Thorwaldsen, the Danish sculptor, was indebted to him for the early recognition of his genius. Chantry, who painted the portraits of so many notables of the early part of the nineteenth century, owed much to Thomas Hope for the direction of his taste, and Flaxman, whose work has been favorably compared with that of Phidias and Raphael, received much encouragement from him. In 1807 he published Household Furniture and External Decorations, which produced a marked change in the furnishing of houses in England. The Costume of the Ancients (1809), embellished with three hundred and twenty-one plates, and Designs of Modern Costume (1812), was followed in 1819 by a novel, Anastasius, or Memoirs of a Modern Greek, which was at first attributed to Lord Byron, who is said to have declared that he would give two of his most approved poems to be its author. An Essay on the Origin and Prospects of Man (1831), and a Historical Essay on Architecture (1837), were published after his death.

THE CEMETERIES OF SCUTARI.

The merit of the new design I had conceived; the wisdom of thus founding the whole fabric of my earthly happiness on my gratification, still continued the ruling theme of my self-applauding thoughts, when I began to discover Scutari, and in the neighborhood of that cityharshly edging the horizon the black streak of cypresses that mark its immense cemeteries, the last resting-place of those who, dying in Constantinople, fear that their bones may some day be disturbed, if laid in the unhallowed ground of Europe.

A dense and motionless cloud of stagnant' vapors ever shrouds these dreary realms. From afar a chilling sensation informs the traveller that he approaches their dark and dismal precincts; and as he enters them an icy blast, rising from their inmost bosom, rushes forth to meet his breath, suddenly strikes his chest, and seems to oppose his progress. His very horse snuffs up the deadly effluvia with signs of manifest terror, and exhaling a cold and clammy sweat, advances reluctantly over a hollow ground, which shakes as he treads it, and loudly re-echoes his slow and fearful step. So long and so busily has time been at work to fill this chosen spot- so repeatedly has Constantinople poured into this ultimate receptacle almost its whole contents, that the capital of the living, spite of its immense population, scarce counts a single breathing inhabitant for every ten silent inmates of this city of the dead. Already do its fields of blooming sepulchres stretch far away on every side, across the brow of the hills and the bend of the valleys: already are the avenues which cross each other at every step in this domain of death so lengthened, that the weary stranger, from whatever point he comes, still finds before him many a dreary mile of road between marshalled tombs and fournful cypresses ere he reaches his journey's seemingly receding end; and yet, every year does this common patrimony of all the heirs to decay still exhibit a rapidly increasing size, a fresh and wider line of boundary, and a new belt of young

plantations, growing up between new flower-beds of graves.—Anastasius.

OPKINS, JOHN HENRY, an American theolo

gian; born at Dublin, Ireland, January 30, 1792; died at Rock Point, Vt., January 9, 1868. He removed to the United States when he was eight years old. He was educated in Philadelphia, and began the practice of law in Pittsburg. In 1823 he entered the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church, preached in Pittsburg and in Boston, and in 1832 was made Bishop of Vermont. He was an active worker in educational affairs, and a vigorous defender of Church doctrines. Among his works are Christianity Vindicated: The Primitive Creed Examined and Explained (1834); The Primitive Church Compared with the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Present Day (1835); Essay on Gothic Architecture (1836); Sixteen Lectures on the Causes, Principles, and Results of the British Reformation (1844); The End of Controversy Controverted (1854); Scriptural, Ecclesiastical, and Historical View of Slavery (1864); The American Citizen: His Rights and Duties According to the Spirit of the Constitution; The Law of Ritualism (1868), and numerous Sermons.

PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD.

So simple, yet so strong, is the basis for this practice. of the Primitive Christian Church, that even the yearnings of the natural heart are compelled to do it homage. For we know how powerfully it operates on the worldly mind itself. Can anyone fail to see that the longing for

posthumous veneration forms one of the highest incentives to the acquisition of fame? Can anyone doubt that the patriots of the Revolution, for example, derived a true and intense satisfaction from the knowledge that when the people, in after ages, should come together to celebrate the national independence, their names would be commemorated with grateful triumph, and thanks and praises in their honor would be uttered from the lips of thousands of orators in every quarter of the land for which they toiled and bled? And has not the same feeling animated the breasts and nerved the efforts of heroes and sages, since the world began?

Thus loudly does nature herself plead in behalf of this universal feeling. It is the instinct of love. It is the witness of immortality, written on the heart, and no effort of false philosophy can overcome it altogether. But the Christian faith explains it, sanctifies it, ennobles it, and gives it the only true and proper elevation. For here we learn that death is no real separation to the children of God. Here we imbibe the spiritual love that lasts forever. Here we enter into the grand society which shall be united before the eternal throne. Why should the departed saint be supposed to forget that Church, for which he toiled and prayed, and in which were formed by the grace of the Holy Spirit, the principles and the character of holiness? Why should the Church on earth be supposed to forget him who is an everlasting member of their own body? And therefore, when they meet together, they take comfort in knowing that he is still united to them in soul. And he takes comfort in knowing that they never fail to commemorate him in these precious words: "And we also bless Thy holy name, for all Thy servants departed this life in Thy faith and fear; beseeching Thee to give us grace to follow their good examples, that with them, we may be partakers of Thy Heavenly kingdom."

Surely then, we have here a rational foundation for the custom of the primitive Christians, and the sentiments of the early fathers, without being in any sense obliged to connect the consolation taken by the departed with

« ForrigeFortsæt »