Whofe later SORROWS have been especially regarded in the following PAPERS.

My Dear Friends,

Sfoon as you caft your

A Eyes upon this little Piece, fome of you will imme

diately think of the good

Husband who is no more; or of the tender Parent who has given the last Bleffing. Others will remember the dear Wife, the Defire of your Eyes; the pretty Child, in whose

a 3

Life

Life your own feemed to be bound up; the Brother will come into mind, who was as your own Soul; and the excellent Friend, who fometimes fticketh clofer than a Brother. I have had all thefe Cafes in my Eye; and with a Sympathy that can only arise from fome Experience and Benevolence in Conjunction, have endeavoured to affuage and improve your Sorrows at the fame time.

It is fomewhat neceffary to have been acquainted with Grief, in order to address fuitably to the Tendernefs of its Nature; to obviate the Subtlety of its Pleas, and Pretenfions for Excefs, and to manage its Operations and Effects. There is danger, otherwife, of increafing the Anguish we would alleviate, and

the

the Wound is made to bleed afresh* Even Balm itself may be painfully applied.

There are, indeed, fome Wounds that will heal of themselves. Give them a little Time, and the Stock of Sorrow is not fo great but it will quickly be fpent: The hafty Showers will foon be over. But the real Mourner is apt to have the Reasons of his Anguish continually before him; and to be more intent upon wafting his Spirits than his Sorrows: Fond of Solitude and Silence, that he may indulge his Paflion, and provoke the Emotion of that Grief which is ready to devour him; taking a fort of Pleafure to lie down under its Oppreffion, and becoming

Curando fieri quædam majora videmus
Vulnera, quæ melius non tetigifle fuit.

a willing

(8)

a willing Prey to its furious Disorders. Upon offering to speak, they reply eagerly, "It is an easy Matter to talk;

you would limit my Grief, and "not fuffer its Vent; but if it were

your own Cafe you would refign yourselves up to it, or faint under "the Preffure of fuch a Calamity." The firft Onfets of Sorrow do indeed call for Compaffion more than Advice: We are to mourn with them that mourn. The Silence of Job's Friends, because they faw his Grief was very great, was more to the Purpose than any thing they could fay. It would be inhuman to deny the Relief of Mourning, when Mourning itself is often its own Relief. But is there any Harm in prefcribing Bounds to it? By what Rule of common

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