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viding that his memory may not fuffer by an unkilful panegyrick.

If our prejudices in favour of antiquity deferve to have any part in the regulation of our ftudies, EPITAPHS feem intitled to more than common regard, as they are probably of the fame age with the art of writing. The most ancient ftructures in the world, the Pyramids, are fuppofed to be fepulchral monuments, which either pride or gratitude erected; and the fame paffions which incited men to fuch laborious and expenfive methods of preferving their own memory, or that of their benefactors, would doubtless incline them not to neglect any easier means by which the fame ends might be obtained. Nature and reafon have dictated to every nation, that to preserve good actions from oblivion, is both the interest and duty of mankind: and therefore we find no people acquainted with the ufe of letters, that omitted to grace the tombs of their heroes and wife men with panegyrical infcriptions.

To examine, therefore, in what the perfection of EPITAPHS Confifts, and what rules are to be obferved in compofing them, will be at least of as much ufe as other critical enquiries; and for affigning a few hours to fuch difquifitions, great examples at least, if not ftrong reafons, may be pleaded,

An EPITAPH, as the word itself implies, is an infcription on the tomb, and in its moft extenfive import may admit indifcriminately fatire or praife. But as malice has feldom produced monuments of defamation, and the tombs hitherto raised have been the work of friendship and benevolence, custom has contracted the original latitude of the word, fo that

it fignifies in the general acceptation an infcription engraven on a tomb in honour of the perfon deceased.

As honours are paid to the dead in order to incite others to the imitation of their excellences, the principal intention of EPITAPHS is to perpetuate the examples of virtue, that the tomb of a good man may fupply the want of his prefence, and veneration for his memory produce the fame effect as the observation of his life. Thofe EPITAPHS are, therefore, the most perfect, which fet virtue in the strongest light, and are beft adapted to exalt the reader's ideas and roufe his emulation.

To this end it is not always neceffary to recount the actions of a hero, or enumerate the writings of a philofopher; to imagine fuch informations neceffary, is to detract from their characters, or to fuppofe their works mortal, or their atchievements in danger of being forgotten. The bare name of fuch men anfwers every purpofe of a long infcription.

Had only the name of Sir ISAAC NEWTON been fubjoined to the defign upon his monument, inftead of a long detail of his difcoveries, which no philofopher can want, and which none but a philofopher can understand, those, by whofe direction it was raifed, had done more honour both to him and to themselves.

This indeed is a commendation which it requires no genius to beftow, but which can never become vulgar or contemptible, if bestowed with judgement; becaufe no fingle age produces many men. of merit fuperior to panegyrick. None but the first names can stand unaffifted against the attacks of time; and if men raifed to reputation by accident

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or caprice, have nothing but their names engraved on their tombs, there is danger left in a few years the infcription require an interpreter. Thus have their expectations been difappointed who honoured Picus of Mirandola with this pompous epitaph.

Hic fitus eft PICUS MIRANDOLA, cætera nount
Et Tagus et Ganges, forfan et Antipodes.

His name, then celebrated in the remoteft corners of the earth, is now almoft forgotten; and his works, then studied, admired, and applauded, are now mouldering in obfcurity.

Next in dignity to the bare name is a fhort character fimple and unadorned, without exaggeration, fuperlatives, or rhetorick. Such were the infcriptions in use among the Romans, in which the victories gained by their emperors were commemorated by a fingle epithet; as Cæfar Germanicus, Cæfar Dacicus, Germanicus, Illyricus. Such would be this epitaph, ISAACUS NEWTONUS, naturæ legibus inveftigatis, bic quiefcit.

But to far the greatest part of mankind a longer encomium is neceffary for the publication of their virtues, and the prefervation of their memories; and in the compofition of these it is that art is principally required, and precepts therefore may be useful.

In writing EPITAPHS, one circumftance is to be confidered, which affects no other compofition; the place in which they are now commonly found reftrains them to a particular air of folemnity, and debars them from the admiffion of all lighter or

gayer

In this it is that the ftyle of an gayer ornaments. EPITAPH neceffarily differs from that of an ELEGY. The custom of burying our dead either in or near our churches, perhaps originally founded on a rational defign of fitting the mind for religious exercifes, by laying before it the most affecting proof of the uncertainty of life, makes it proper to exclude from our EPITAPHS all fuch allufions as are contrary to the doctrines for the propagation of which the churches are erected, and to the end for which thofe who perufe the monuments must be fuppofed to come thither. Nothing is, therefore, more ridiculous than to copy the Roman infcriptions, which were engraven on ftones by the highway, and composed by those who generally reflected on mortality only to excite in themfelves and others a quicker relifh of pleafure, and a more luxurious enjoyment of life, and whofe regard for the dead extended no farther than a wifh that the earth might be light upon them.

All allufions to the heathen mythology are therefore abfurd, and all regard for the fenfeless remains of a dead man impertinent and fuperftitious. One of the first distinctions of the primitive chriftians, was their neglect of beftowing garlands on the dead, in which they are very rationally defended by their apologist in Minutius Felix. "We lavish no flowers "nor odours on the dead," fays he, "because they "have no fenfe of fragrance or of beauty." We profefs to reverence the dead, not for their fake, but for our own. It is therefore always with indignation or contempt that I read the epitaph on

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Cowley

Cowley, a man, whose learning and poetry were his loweft merits,

Aurea dum late volitant tua fcripta per orbem
Et fama eternum vivis, divine Poëta,
Hic placida jaceas requie, cuftodiat urnam
Cana, Fides, vigilent que perenni Lampade Mufa!
Sit facer ille locus, nec quis temerarius aufit
Sacrilega turbare manu venerabile buftum,
Intaɛti maneant, maneant per fæcula dulces.
COWLEII cineres, ferventque immobile Saxum.

To pray that the ashes of a friend may lie undisturbed, and that the divinities that favoured him in his life, may watch for ever round him to preferve his tomb from violation, and drive facrilege away, is only rational in him who believes the foul interested in the repofe of the body, and the powers which he invokes for its protection able to preferve it. To cenfure fuch expreffions as contrary to religion, or as remains of heathen fuperftition, would be too great a degree of feverity. I condemn them only as uninstructive and unaffecting, as too ludicrous for reverence or grief, for christianity and a temple.

That the defigns and decorations of monuments ought likewife to be formed with the fame regard to the folemnity of the place, cannot be denied: it is an established principle, that all ornaments owe their beauty to their propriety. The fame glitter of drefs that adds graces to gaiety and youth, would make age and dignity contemptible. Charon with his boat is far from heightening the awful grandeur of the univerfal judgement, though drawn by An

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