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NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
' CW-H*
11 •
THE FREETHINKER’S
BURIAL
Reprinted from The Examiner of February 22, 1873.
Sir,—A recent pamphlet, one of Mr. Thomas Scott’s
series, entitled ‘ The Book of Common Prayer Examined in
the Light of the Present Age,’ by Mr. William .Jevons, and
in which the varying views of St. Paul on a future life are
pointed out, has turned my thoughts to the position ’which
Freethinkers of the present and future generations are
likely to take with reference to the burial service of
the Church of England, and to the question of burials in
general.
It will be well known to many of your readers that both
in France and Italy Societies of Freethinkers have been
established for the express purpose of preventing the
clergy from obtruding themselves unsolicited into the
presence of dying members of the Society. In this
country Freethinkers at present need not much fear beinginterfered with on their death-beds against their will by
the clergy; but still kind or officious friends may try to
make the world believe that those who have in their mature
years rejected the creeds and fables taught them in their
childhood, did at the last hour see the error of their way,
give up their deliberate convictions, and accept the orthodox
belief that their only chance of a future life of happiness
depends upon the merits of a crucified man. Under these
circumstances, and even independently of them, many a
Freethinker may, if he turns his attention to the subject at
all, be desirous of putting on record, as solemnly as
possible, his opinions and his wishes, and to such as do so
it may occur that, following the fashion of our ancestors,
but in an opposite direction, they may, instead of
invoking the Holy Trinity and professing to commit
their bodies and souls to the keeping of the Almighty,
and declaring their belief in the certainty of their
resurrection to a future life, or in any other speculative
matter, make their will as far as regards their burial
somewhat in the following form :—-
�With respect to my burial, although ! have no objection to being
buried in what is commonly called consecrated ground, I should
prefer non-consecrated ground, being not only fully convinced that t he
act of no man, be he pope, bishop, or priest of any kind, can make
any portion of this earth more holy or sacred than another, but
also wishing to enter my protest against the superstitious reverence
generally paid to this act of consecration.
Not believing in the dogmas of original sin, the fall of man, the
atonement or redemption, and not believing that the man Jesus
of Nazareth was born of a virgin, nor in his resurrection after
death by crucifixion, nor that he descended into a place called hell,
nor that, he ascended into a place called- heaven, and then sat on
the right hand of God, and as I shall not die “in the Lord’
according to the views of those who style themselves Orthodox
Christians, I express my desire that neither the burial service of
the Church of England nor any other religious service shall be
performed on the occasion of my remains being consigned to the
earth, as it would, in my case, be merely a farce and mockery.
I desire that as little funeral ceremony shall be allowed as
possible—a plain coffin [single, and of perishable wood or wicker], a
hearse with not more than a pair of horses, no trappings of any
kind and no mourning coaches. I request those of my friends who
may be present on the occasion will go in their own clothes, and not
allow themselves to be dressed like mutes or undertakers’ men in
grotesque hatbands or scarves.”
The above will probably express the real views of a
great number among us, and even if surviving friends
and relatives differ from those views and would gladly
think matters were otherwise, they ought to bear in mind
that concealment is not honest, and that the allowing what
they will consider a very solemn service of the Church to
be performed on such an occasion would simply be acting
a lie, and ought to be far more abhorrent to them than
their acknowledgment of facts that cannot be altered.
I am. &c.,
W. H. D.
P.S. — The following extract from the Musee de&
Monumens Francais, by Alexandre Lenoir (Paris, 1806),
may interest your readers: “ The refusal of the Clergy
to bury Moliere caused a great scandal in Paris. The
king Louis XIV., being informed of this abuse of the
�3
ecclesiastical power, sent for the priest of St. ■ Eustache
(to which parish Moliere belonged), and ordered him
to bury the poet. This he declined to do, on account of
his being an actor, saying that such a man could not be
buried in consecrated ground. ‘ To what depth is the
ground consecrated?’ inquired the king of the narrow
minded priest. ‘To the depth of four feet, sire.’ Then
bury him six feet deep, and let there be an end of it,’
replied the king, turning his back on the priest of St.
Eustache.”
THE
FREETHINKER’S
MOURNING.
Reprinted from The Examiner of March 8, 1873.
Sir,—As you have kindly favoured me by inserting my
letter on “ The Freethinker’s Burial,” I now venture to
trouble you with one on possibly a more delicate subject
“ The Freethinker’s Mourning.”
In these days, when men and women allow and encourage
their stationers to go on increasing their depth of mourning
borders till space is scarcely left for any writing, a few
words on the exaggeration of mourning, internal as well as
external, may perhaps be permitted. That the Orthodox,
full of their “certain hope” that the departed has at once
been translated to realms of eternal bliss, where they
themselves will (after an interval of the briefest as
compared with eternity) in the due course of nature join
them, should give way to weeping and wailing—that
grown-up children, themselves old enough to be parents, or
even grandparents, should be completely unnerved at death
laying its hands on their parents, who simply appear to fall
asleep, their bodily frames having gradually given way and
decayed like the leaf on the tree that has performed its
allotted task and drops in its autumn season, is a
psychological phase in human nature singularly puzzling to
an outsider; but as the ways of the Orthodox are not my
ways, I pass them by. My letter is addressed to those who may
�4
be, like myself, Freethinkers; and to them I would say,
ought we not always to be prepared for death ourselves,
and therefore equally prepared for it in the case of our
friends and relatives ? Shocks are disagreeable to all; but
constant contemplation of what is happening around us
will, in every respect, prevent the shock otherwise caused
by sudden bereavement. As we learn to look upon our own
deaths as the result of laws partly hidden and partly known
but never varying, so exactly shall we learn to look upon
the deaths of those most dear to us. This uncertainty of
life, so far from being an evil, ought to be one of the
strongest inducements to all good work. To an earnest
Freethinker it should never be possible to grieve over lost
opportunities of making those around him better and
happier. As I have lived so shall 1 die. Let my daily '
thoughts be—This is possibly my last day here ; how ought
I to act for the best towards myself and others ?
So when even the young are cut off from us, let our true
regret be lightened by the feeling that, while in no way
wasting our time and energies in the study of dogmas on
subjects beyond human knowledge, or troubling ourselves
about creeds and articles of faith, we have to the very best
of our abilities made ourselves masters of the laws of nature,
have done all in our power by obedience to these laws to
preserve the life of that dear one. When life is cut short
by our self-willed ignorance of, or our carelessness about
these laws—then, indeed, is there true cause for mourning
over an untimely death.
I am, &c.,
|
j
’
W. H. D.
1
1
4
�
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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The freethinker's burial [and, The freethinker's mourning]
Creator
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Domville, William Henry
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: 4 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Reprinted from The Examiner of February 22, 1873 and March 8, 1873. Letters to the editor, signed W.H.D. Author's name handwritten in pencil on title page. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Publisher
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[s.n.]
Date
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1873
Identifier
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N196
Subject
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Death
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The freethinker's burial [and, The freethinker's mourning]), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Death
Freethinkers
Mourning
NSS