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every age of learning, by men of great abilities. and extenfive knowledge, till the rules of writing are become rather burthenfome than inftructive to the. mind; though almost every fpecies of compofition has been the subject of particular treatises, and given birth to definitions, diftinctions, precepts, and illus, trations; yet no critick of note, that has fallen within my obfervation, has hitherto thought fepulchral infcriptions worthy of a minute examination, or pointed out with proper accuracy their beauties and defects.

The reafons of this neglect it is ufelefs to enquire, and perhaps impoffible to difcover; it might be justly expected that this kind of writing would have been the favourite topick of criticifin, and that felflove might have produced fome regard for it, in those authors that have crowded libraries with elaborate differations upon Homer; fince to afford a fubje&t for heroick poems is the privilege of very few, but every man may expect to be recorded in an epitaph, and therefore finds fome intereft in pro

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

If our prejudices in favour of antiquity deserve 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 moft 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 doubtlefs incline them not to neglect any eafier means by which the fame ends might be obtained. Nature and reason have dictated to every nation, that to preferve good actions from oblivion, is both the intereft 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 Confists, and what rules are to be observed in compofing them, will be at leaft 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 itfelf 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, cuftom has contracted the original latitude of the word, fo that

it

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 obfervation 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 purpose of a long infcription.

Had only the name of Sir ISAAC NEWTON been fubjoined to the defign upon his monument, instead of a long detail of his discoveries, which no philofopher can want, and which none but a philofopher can underftand, thofe, 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 beftowed with judgement; because 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 raised 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 neunt

Et Tagus et Ganges, forfan et Antipodes.

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

Next in dignity to the bare name is a fhort character fimple and unadorned, without exaggeration, superlatives, or rhetorick. Such were the infcriptions in ufe 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, hic quiefcit,

But to far the greatest part of mankind a longer encomium is neceffary for the publication of their virtues, and the preservation of their memories; and in the compofition of thefe 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 refrains them to a particular air of folemnity, and debars them from the admiffion of all lighter or gayer orVOL. II.

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naments.

The

naments. In this it is that the ftyle of an EPITAPH neceffarily differs from that of an ELEGY. cuftom of burying our dead either in or near our churches, perhaps originally founded on a rational defign of fitting the mind for religious exercises, 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 those who peruse 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 high-way, and compofed by thofe who generally reflected on mortality only to excite in themselves 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 wish that the earth might be light upon them.

All allufions to the heathen mythology are therefore abfurd, and all regard for the fenfelefs remains of a dead man impertinent and fuperftitious. One of the firft diftinctions of the primitive chriftians, was their neglect of beftowing garlands on the dead, in which they are very rationally defended by their apologift in Minutius Felix. "We lavish no flowers

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nor odours on the dead," fays he," because they "have no fenfe of fragrance or of beauty." We profess 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

Cowley,

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