Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna.
ON the death of a great man they assemble in a mosque to pronounce his funeral oration, which is a discourse in praise of him; from which it is very difficult to determine justly the merit of the deceased. I would abolish these funeral pomps. The birth, not the death of men should be mourned. To what end do these ceremonies serve, and all their mournful show to a dying man in his last moments? even the tears of his family, and the grief of his friends, do but exaggerate to him the loss he is about to sustain. We are so blind, that we know not how to time our sorrow nor our joy; we have scarcely ever any but false joys and false sorrows. When I see the Mogul, who every year goes to weigh himself in a balance, to be weighed like an ox; when I see the people rejoice that their prince is become more gross, that is, less fit to govern them, I have pity, Ibben, on human extravagance.