A DISSERTATION UPON FUNERAL ORATIONS, READ AT THE ISLINGTON LITERARY INSTITUTION, BY ALFRED A. FRY, Esq. OF LINCOLN'S INN. "La Religion a fait naitre parmi nous un autre genre d'Eloquence, qui, "Man was made to mourn. "BURNS. LONDON: HENRY HOOPER, PALL MALL, EAST. 1839. ΤΟ JOHN J. J. SUDLOW, ESQ. A VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE ISLINGTON LITERARY INSTITUTION, AND ONE OF ITS FOUNDERS, THIS DISSERTATION IS DEDICATED, WITH EVERY SENTIMENT OF ESTEEM, BY THE AUTHOR, ONCE HIS PUPIL, AND NOW HIS SINCERELY ATTACHED FRIEND. The Dissertation now printed, was lately read by the Author at the Literary Meeting of the Islington Institution; and the reception there given to it, tempts him to introduce it to the public notice. In the interesting debate which took place upon it, the object of the author was misunderstood to be a desire to advocate the revival of an old, or the introduction of a new, practice of delivering Funeral Orations. But no such design induced the Dissertation. The author is fully aware of the distinctions which exist between this country and those in which the practice has prevailed. His object really and merely was to point the attention of his hearers (as now of his readers) to an interesting, but little examined, department of Eloquence; historically to deduce, and practically to explain, the origin and effects among men, of the custom of Posthumous Panegyric; and to present specimens of the treasures which exist in this peculiar portion of Literature. He humbly ventures to think the task may be a useful one, as no critical work upon Funeral Eloquence exists in our language. Dr. Campbell, and Dr. Blair, in their respective Treatises on Rhetoric, touch it not. The last-named of these elegant writers, indeed, devotes two chapters of his work to Pulpit Eloquence; but they are confined to judicious instructions for the delivery of Sermons, properly so called. Chancery Lane, A DISSERTATION UPON FUNERAL ORATIONS. "For An earnest auxiety for posthumous reputation is natural to man. In the greatest spirits it is an enthusiastic passion, which animates them to the most glorious deeds, and induces them to sacrifice even life itself to indulge it. "if," says one in whose breast it reigned with almost sovereign sway, in the most philosophical oration of antiquity,* "the mind had no regard for futurity, and bounded its "thoughts by the same limits within which the space of "life is circumscribed, it would not weary itself with so 66 many labours, nor vex itself with so many cares and "watchings. But there is implanted in every excellent "man a virtuous principle, which animates his soul day "and night with the excitement of glory, and whispers to "him that the mention of our name will not cease with the "short period of life, but will endure through all after-ages." And in later times, one even greater than he, Lord Bacon, in his splendid work, "The Advancement of Learning,"† (which should be read by every person who wishes to see the highest possible combination of the "universality" of a philosopher, the knowledge of a scholar, and the imagination of a poet,) has observed, that " that whereunto man's * Cicero pro Archiâ. "Certe, si nihil animus præsentiret in posterum, et si 66 quibus regionibus vitæ spatium circumscriptum sit, eisdem omnes cogitationes "terminaret suas; nec tantis se laboribus frangeret, neque tot curis vigiliisque angeretur. ... . Nunc insidet quædam in optimo quoque virtus, quæ noctes et "dies animum gloriæ stimulis concitat; atque admonet, non cum vitæ tempore esse dimittendam commemorationem nominis nostri, sed cum omni posteritate "6 adæquandam." 66 + Book I, |