The only hope for us if these scientific views become general, is, that embalming will be resorted to; but I question if the religious feelings of the country will approve of a practice which certainly seems rather like an attempt to arrest a decree of Providence; and would, besides, be very expensive.  Hero I am reminded of another danger, to which our prospects are exposed.  It is that likely to arise from serious parties, in consequence of growing more enlightened, thinking consistently with their religious principles, instead of their religion being a mere sentimental kind of thing which they never reason upon.  We often, you know, gentlemen, overhear the bereaved remarking that they trust the departed is in a better place.  Why, if this were not a mere customary saying on mournful occasions—­if the parties really believed this—­do you think they would attach any importance to the dead body which we bury underground?  No; to be sure:  they would look upon it merely as a suit of left-off clothes—­with the difference of being unpleasant and offensive, and not capable of being kept.  They would see that a spirit could care no more about the corpse it had quitted, than a man who had lost his leg, would for the amputated limb.  The truth is—­don’t breathe it, don’t whisper it, except to the trade—­that the custom of burying the dead with expensive furniture; of treating a corpse as if it were a sensible being; arises from an impression—­though parties won’t own it, even to themselves—­that what is buried is the actual individual, the man himself.  The effect of thinking seriously, and at the same time rationally, will be to destroy this notion, and with it put an end to all the splendor and magnificence of funerals, arising from it.  Moreover, religious parties, being particular as to their moral conduct, would naturally consider it wrong and wicked to spend upon the dead an amount of money which might be devoted to the benefit of the living; and no doubt, when we come to look into it, such expenditure is much the same thing with the practice of savages and heathens in burying bread, and meat, and clothes, along with their deceased friends.

I have been suggesting considerations which are very discouraging, and which afford but a poor look-out to us undertakers.  But, gentlemen, we have one great comfort still.  It has become the fashion to inter bodies with parade and display.  Fashion is fashion; and the consequence is that it is considered an insult to the memory of deceased parties not to bury them in a certain style; which must be respectable at the very least, and cost, on a very low average, twenty-five or thirty pounds.  Many, such as professional persons and tradespeople, who cannot afford so much money, can still less afford to lose character and custom.  That is where we have a pull upon the widows and children, many of whom, if it were not for the opinion of society, would be only too happy to save their little money, and turn it into food and clothing, instead of funeral furniture.