Be with me, Lord, all through this day,
Both in my work and in my play,
That I by word and deed may be
Worthy of love, of Heaven, and Thee.
John Quincy Adams, “the old man eloquent,” said at the close of fifty
years of crowded public life, beginning in 1798 and ending with his
death in 1848, that he had never retired at night without repeating the
little prayer that his mother taught him, “Now I lay me down to sleep.”
He further said it had been his practice to spend an hour each day in
reading the Holy Scriptures.
_Thanatopsis_
Few poems have taken such remarkable hold of the public mind as Mr.
Bryant’s “Thanatopsis.” It has proved a source of profound consolation
to many an anxious mind. Yet it has been subjected to criticism which
implies misapprehension of its purport and purpose. The young writer
evidently did not propose to deal with the strictly religious side of
the matter. His poem is what is called “A View of Death.” It addresses
itself to those whose fears may be excited by the prospect of the act of
dying. It offers those consolations which are appropriate to such a
consideration of a particular theme. It is an expansion of the old idea
that “it is as natural to die as to live.” It deals with death as a
change pertinent to the human constitution, and to be encountered with
philosophical resignation. Any distinct recognition of the life to come
would have been foreign to its purpose. It must be read with a full
recollection that its author was a believer in the blessings and glories
of the future state, though his immediate purpose was to reassure those
who regard the end of this life with unmanly timidity.
At the same time there is a suggestion of faith in the future which is
an essential part of the poem. The reader is exhorted to live so wisely
that when his summons comes he may approach the grave “sustained and
soothed by an unfaltering trust.” There may be those who find in these
words only an exhortation to a dignified acquiescence in the inevitable;
but considering that they were written by one who had been trained in
the principles of Christianity, they were probably suggested to his mind
by the general belief of mankind in immortality.
Thanatopsis has been misunderstood because of its entire freedom from
hackneyed common-places. Death is most frequently treated by Christian
writers from a distinctly Christian point of view. This is natural, and
leaves no ground for disapprobation. There is no reason, however, why it
should not be also philosophically considered, as it has been, indeed,
by several eminent religious writers, and as it is occasionally in the
Holy Scriptures themselves.
This beautiful poem is in no need of extenuation or excuse. The poet was
writing upon the mortality, not the immortality of man. He took away no
genuine religious consolations—he simply offered others which are not to
be disregarded because they are almost entirely intellectual.
_Immortality_
In connection with the foregoing remarks, it is well to quote the
following passage from Mr. Bryant’s poem. “Flood of Years”:
So they pass
From stage to stage along the shining course
Of that fair river broadened like a sea.
As its smooth eddies curl along their way,
They bring old friends together; hands are clasped
In joy unspeakable; the mother’s arms
Are again folded round the child she loved
And lost. Old sorrows are forgotten now
Or but remembered to make sweet the hour
That overpays them; wounded hearts that bled
Or broke are healed forever.
A gentleman who had been sorely bereaved was so struck by the
unquestioning faith in immortality here expressed, that he wrote to Mr.
Bryant, asking if the lines were to be understood as a statement of his
own belief. Mr. Bryant instantly replied in the following note:
CUMMINGTON, MASS., Aug. 10, 1876.
Certainly I believe all that is said in the lines you have quoted. If
I had not, I could not have written them. I believe in the everlasting
life of the soul; and it seems to me that immortality would be but an
imperfect gift without the recognition in the life to come of those
who are dear to us here.