In Richard Steele’s essay “An Hour or Two Sacred to Sorrow,” Steele explores the benefits of grieving and remembering past deaths. Steele begins by remembering how, as a child, his father died. He truly didn’t comprehend what was happening until he saw his mother grieving, allowing him to make the connection between the death and his mother’s emotions; thus, Steele began to feel “an instinct of sorrow.” Steele moves on to compare a young mind to “the body in embryo,” emphasizing the impressionability of ideas, feelings, and characteristics as a child that prove to be difficult to change later in life. Furthermore, Steele explains how memories from one’s youth are the most prominent throughout his or her life. Later, Steele states how sudden
