Describes Ellen Levison's funeral. Transcription: assemblage. What he [ Chapin] said was excellent, and admirably adapted to comfort poor [William] Levison. He did not magnify the terror of Death, or draw a skull and cross bones In-the-midst-of-life-we-are-in-death moral, nor deal in conventional depreciations of the glory and beauty of Life, he did not attempt to explain the unexplainable. He frankly accepted the mystery of the case ? the child [Ellen Levison] ?s short life and painful death. He expressed his acquiescence: and faith that All was Well, and bade the parents believe that t
Describes Ellen Levison's funeral. Transcription: assemblage. What he [ Chapin] said was excellent, and admirably adapted to comfort poor [William] Levison. He did not magnify the terror of Death, or draw a skull and cross bones In-the-midst-of-life-we-are-in-death moral, nor deal in conventional depreciations of the glory and beauty of Life, he did not attempt to explain the unexplainable. He frankly accepted the mystery of the case ? the child [Ellen Levison] ?s short life and painful death. He expressed his acquiescence: and faith that All was Well, and bade the parents believe that the child had but preceded them; that they had not parted for ever. With much more, all good, kindly and human. He appeared far more of the man than the clergyman, and that ?s why I liked him. Most of the women were crying. I liked ?em for it. Mrs Patten ?s eyes were very red, and Mrs [Elizabeth] Gouverneur cried. (She sat next to me, and on her crossing to that place I said to her, ?ǣDon ?t let us retain any ill feeling towards one another now! ? So she put her hand into mine, gave it a little cordial squeeze, and we were friends again. (She looked very nice, with her smooth brown hair, plump figure and full skirts, and was the handsomest woman in the room.) We sat in the rear of Levison and his wife [Mary Levison]. I could see his bowed bald head and red hair. I felt very sorry for the man. A prayer followed the address, and then the assemblage flocked into the coaches, the hearse preceding them. I, with [William] Leslie Title: Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries: Volume 8, page 147, February 1, 1857 . 1 February 1857. Gunn, Thomas Butler, 1826-1903
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