In presenting to the Public a Fourth Edition of the Tribute of Sympathy, the author has only to express his unfeigned gratitude to Almighty God, for the many testimonies he has received of the efficacy of his little work in administering consolation to the mourner; and to add, that having carefully revised it, previously to its going to the press, he hopes he shall have rendered the present edition more acceptable to his readers.

Farnham, 1824,

A

TRIBUTE OF SYMPATHY.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE INDULGENCE OF GRIEF.

OF all the varied emotions of which the human mind is susceptible, that arising from the exercise of sympathy, or the capacity for suffering, in ourselves, the cares and sorrows of those around us, is perhaps at once the most engaging and the most extensively useful. When once excited, the heart is expanded to the full operation of the benevolent affections, and the most self-denying sacrifices are cheerfully made, in order to secure the happiness of its object. The high excitement of feeling occasioned by the exercise of this principle, is in itself so large a source of present pleasure, that we sometimes meet with individuals who glaringly obtrude their claims to its possession; but with whom it is an ineffective stimulus to action, administering