An enquiry as to the duration of life in rural districts : including the parishes of Barnes, Putney, Kew, and Mortlake, in the county of Surrey, and the parishes of Acton, Ealing, Chiswick, Hammersmith, and Fulham, in the county of Middlesex : illustrated by tables, topographical, biographical, and heraldic notices / by J.H. James.

  • James, James Henry.
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An enquiry as to the duration of life in rural districts : including the parishes of Barnes, Putney, Kew, and Mortlake, in the county of Surrey, and the parishes of Acton, Ealing, Chiswick, Hammersmith, and Fulham, in the county of Middlesex : illustrated by tables, topographical, biographical, and heraldic notices / by J.H. James. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    nature of death itself, by which the dark line between the present and the future is inevitably drawn, is robbed of much of its terrors. All these associations—which are most creditable to our nature—grow up with us from our infancy, and strengthen with our strength. No tie, indeed, is firmer than that w^hich local remembrances, when allied with objects of personal affection, always create. How delightfully is it evidenced, when we have for a series of vears been absent from the place of our birth, the scene of our youthful joys, the arena of our matured education and experience, and again return to the much loved spot! This moment, amid changes of circumstances, and the varied charms of other lands, has ever been pictured in our mind and eye, and the hope to revisit the home of our childhood has buoyed us up under the worst vicissitudes of an eventful career. The spiritual portion of life,—the poetry of our existence, —is concentrated by the simple effort to recollect the epochs which are chief and natural to all: those which mark our own birth, our school days, our entrance into the world, our marriage, the birth of our children, and other bonds of con- nection, formed by their progress on the stage of earthly trials. These are all recalled, when we enter the old- fashioned, but suitable temple, dedicated to the worship of the Supreme Being, under whose’ blessing and guidance we have been so far enabled to walk in our pilgrimage to “the silent bourne from which none return.” There are sentiments allied with the subject, which, though homely, are beautiful and all-enduring; and it was generously and truly expressed, by the erudite Doctor Samuel Johnson, of Gray, “ that, had he not penned another line than the