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Cowley, a man, whofe 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, cuflodiat urnam
Cana Fides, vigilentque perenni lampade Mufe!
Sit facer ille locus, nec quis temerarius aufit
Sacrilega turbare manu venerabile buftum.
Intacti maneant, maneant per fæcula dulces
COWLEII cineres, ferventque immobile faxum.

To pray that the afhes 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 uninftructive and unaffecting, as too ludicrous for reverence or grief, for chriftianity 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 dress 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 judgment, though drawn by Angelo himself,

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nor is it easy to imagine a greater abfurdity than that of gracing the walls of a chriftian temple with the figure of Mars leading a hero to battle, or Cupids fporting round a virgin. The pope who defaced the ftatues of the deities at the tomb of Sannazarius is, in my opinion, more eafily to be defended, than he that erected them.

It is for the fame reafon improper to address the EPITAPH to the paffenger, a custom which an injudicious veneration for antiquity introduced again at the revival of letters, and which, among many others, Pefferatius fuffered to miflead him in his EPITAPH upon the heart of Henry king of France, who was flabbed by Clement the monk, which yet deferves to be inferted, for the fake of fhewing how beautiful even improprieties may become, in the hands of a good

writer:

Adfla, viator, et dole regum vices.
Cor Regis ifto conditur fub marmore,
Qui jura Gallis, jura Sarmatis dedit.
Titius cucullo hunc fuftulit ficarius.

Abi, viator, et dole regum vices.

In the monkih ages, however ignorant and unpolished, the EPITAPHS were drawn up with far greater propriety than can be fhewn in thofe which more enlightened times have produced.

Orate pro Animamiferrimi Peccatoris,

was an addrefs to the laft degree ftriking and folemn, as it flowed naturally from the religion then believed, and awakened in the reader fentiments of benevolence

for the deceafed, and of concern for his own happiness. There was nothing trifling or ludicrous, nothing that did not tend to the nobleft end, the propagation of piety and the increase of devotion.

It may feem very fuperfluous to lay it down as the firft rule for writing EPITAPHS, that the name of the deceased is not to be omitted; nor fhould I have thought fuch a precept neceffary, had not the practice of the greatest writers fhewn, that it has not been fufficiently regarded. In moft of the poetical EPITAPHS, the names for whom they were compofed, may be fought to no purpofe, being only prefixed on the monument. To expofe the abfurdity of this omiffion, it is only neceffary to afk how the EPITAPHS, which have outlived the ftones on which they were infcribed, would have contributed to the information of pofterity, had they wanted the names of thofe whom they celebrated.

In drawing the character of the deceased, there are no rules to be obferved which do not equally relate to other compofitions. The praife ought not to be general, because the mind is loft in the extent of any indefinite idea, and cannot be affected with what it cannot comprehend. When we hear only of a good or great man, we know not in what clafs to place him, nor have any notion of his character, diftinct from that of a thoufand others; his example can have no effect upon our conduct, as we have nothing remarkable or eminent to propofe to our imitation. The EPITAPH compofed by Ennius for his own tomb, has both the faults laft mentioned:

Nemo me decoret lacrumis, nec funera, fietu

Faxit. Cur? volito vivu' per ora virum,

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The reader of this EPITAPH receives fcarce any idea from it; he neither conceives any veneration for the man to whom it belongs, nor is inftructed by what methods this boafted reputation is to be obtained.

Though a fepulchral infcription is profeffedly a panegyrick, and, therefore, not confined to hiftorical impartiality, yet it ought always to be written with regard to truth. No man ought to be commended for virtues which he never poffeffed, but whoever is curious to know his faults muft inquire after them in other places; the monuments of the dead are not intended to perpetuate the memory of crimes, but to exhibit patterns of virtue. On the tomb of Mecenas his luxury is not to be mentioned with his munificence, nor is the profcription to find a place on the monument of Augustus.

The beft fubject for EPITAPHS is private virtue; virtue exerted in the fame circumftances in which the bulk of mankind are placed, and which, therefore, may admit of many imitators. He that has delivered his country from oppreffion, or freed the world from ignorance and error, can excite the emulation of a very fmall number; but he that has repelled the temptations of poverty, and difdained to free himself from diftrefs at the expenfe of his virtue, may animate multitudes, by his example, to the fame firmnefs of heart and fteadiness of refolution.

Of this kind I cannot forbear the mention of two Greek infcriptions; one upon a man whofe writings are well known, the other upon a perfon whofe memory is preferved only in her EPITAPH, who both

lived in flavery, the moft calamitous eftate in human

life:

Ζωσιμη ἡ πριν εέσα μονω τω σωματι δέλη,
Και τω σωματι νυν ευρεν ελευθερίην.

ZOSIMA, que folo fuit olim corpore ferva,
Corpore nunc etiam libera facta fuit.

«ZOSIMA, who in her life could only have her body enflaved, now finds her body likewise set at liberty."

It is impoffible to read this EPITAPH without being animated to bear the evils of life with conftancy, and to fupport the dignity of human nature under the most preffing afflictions, both by the example of the heroine, whofe grave we behold, and the prospect of that state in which, to ufe the language of the infpired writers, "The poor ceafe from their labours, and the weary be at reft.".

The other is upon Epictetus, the Stoick philofopher:

Δελ ΕπικτητΘ λενομην, και σωμα αναπηρ;
Και πενίην Ιρα, και φιλΘ- Αθανατοις.

Servus Epictetus, mutilatus corpore vixi

Paupericque Irus, curaque prima Deûm.

"EPICTETUS, who lies here, was a flave and a cripple, poor as the beggar in the proverb, and the favourite of Heaven."

In this diftich is comprised the nobleft panegyrick, and the most important inftruction. We may learn from it, that virtue is impracticable in no condition,

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