“We, no doubt, all acknowledge that our life would be a miserable one if our burden of grief were _always_ as hard to bear as it is _immediately_ after the death of a dear friend, and when we are deeply depressed by a burden of grief, we can not devote ourselves with the same energy and success to the development of body and mind, and grapple with the phenomena of life as we can when our vital functions act in accordance with the laws of the most complete life and health; therefore, he who can lay aside all grief and melancholy, caused by the deprivation of a dear relative and friend, is the most complete person, while he who must bear the burden longest is the most incomplete person on this point. In a fierce struggle for existence the latter would, no doubt, soon perish. Hence no one can consistently and successfully defend the position and practice of artificially prolonging our grief and misery by wearing mourning for the dead; and no considerate person would desire it of his friends, for this practice of wearing mourning is no less a remnant of barbarism than the practice of interring the living with the dead, and he who feels that it is honorable, and that his dead friend would appreciate it, if he could, must necessarily lack refinement and consideration himself, for mourning can serve no good purpose for either the living or the dead. “We have no material monuments; no memorials erected over our material remains. We believe that the deeds we do while we live, if they deserve remembrance, will erect a mental memorial in the minds of the living, which will serve to perpetuate our memory until our deeds are eclipsed by some nobler ones of posterity. “Again, when we examine your tombs we find that nearly all the great monuments have been erected to the honor of the most unworthy and infamous persons--generals, torturers, despots and tyrants and bigots who were instrumental in taking the lives of thousands of innocent persons, and who have appropriated countless billions from the earnings of the productive laborers. The principle of material monuments is the same, whether contemplated from the colossal pyramids of Egypt or from the humblest tombstone of a country cemetery; costliness is the only difference. “From the foregoing explanation you see at once that all obsequies, mourning and memorials originated in primitive barbarism; and were first practiced by savages; that they are wasteful, useless and destructive of life, health and property; that they fall into disuse in proportion as man, by a higher state of culture, begins to see that they detract from the completest life and health, and are, therefore, destructive of the greatest happiness, and that no thoughtful, considerate person would desire any such acts from surviving friends whom he _really_ and _truly_ loves.”