The "common" expressions of sympathy with our trouble are very
"commonplace"--
"Vacant chaff well-meant for grain."
A friend asks, "Why grieve?" "Other friends remain;" "Loss is common to
the race;" as Hamlet's mother says, "All that live must die." Is this
comfort? rather the contrary. We know it is so--
"Never morning wore
To evening, but some heart did break."
The father drinks his son's health at the war, in the moment when that son
is shot.