defunct, where the company were assembled for the funeral.
In Scotland is universally retained the custom, now disused in England, of inviting the relations of the deceased to the interment. Upon many occasions this has a singular and striking effect, but upon some it degenerates into mere empty form and grimace, in cases where the defunct has had the misfortune to live unbeloved and die unlamented. The English service for the dead, one of the most beautiful and impressive parts of the ritual of the church, would have, in such cases, the effect of fixing the attention, and uniting the thoughts and feelings of the audience present, in an exercise of devotion so peculiarly adapted to such an occasion. But according to the Scottish Custom, if there be not real feeling among the assistants, there is nothing to supply the want, and exalt or rouse the attention; so that a sense of tedious form, and almost hypocritical restraint, is too apt to per-
