Note 176 — Chapter VI

In the play of 'Virginius' the body of Virginia is represented as having been placed in an urn, and when the distraught father enquires for his missing daughter, the vase is placed in his hands by the sorrowing lover. When this scene is presented, the thrill which seizes the audience is succeeded by a sensation of admiration at the eminently superior system of the ancients. I have seen the actor Brooke in this tragedy, and the effect which he here produced was inexpressible. Many whom I have consulted as to the feelings engendered at this point, have invariably declared that they were at the time complete converts to cremation, and that the sense of approval only left them when they began to realise how impossible were funeral pyres in this country. Happily the Siemens apparatus is now at hand, and its suitability proved beyond all cavil.