Wherefore I joy that you may see, VIII. God grant to those that white hairs have, Their souls may joy their lives well spent. EXERCISE XLIII. EPITAPH is from the Greek (EPI, upon, and TAPHOs, tomb), and signifies what is written on a tomb, that is, a monumental inscription. It is usually very brief. Its general tone is serious. But often it has been made the vehicle of wit, humor, and satire, and not seldom the channel of gross flattery or slander. EPITAPHS. SAMUEL JOHNSON, 1. An epitaph, as the word itself implies, is an inscription on the tomb, and in its most extensive import may admit indiscriminately satire or praise. But, as malice has seldom 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, so that it signifies, in the general acceptation, an inscription engraven on a tomb in honor of the person deceased. 2. As honors are paid to the dead in order to incite others to the imitation of their excellencies, the principal intention of epitaphs is to perpetuate the examples of virtue, that the tomb. of a good man may supply the want of his presence, and veneration for his memory produce the same effect as the observation of his life. Those spitaphs are, therefore, the most perfect, which set virtue in the strongest light, and are best adapted to exalt the reader's ideas and rouse his emulation. 3. The best subject for epitaphs is private virtue; virtue exerted in the same circumstances in which the bulk of mankind are placed, and which, therefore, may admit of many imitators. He that has delivered his country from oppression, or freed the world from ignorance and error, can excite the cmulation of a very small number; but he that has repelled the temptations of poverty, and disdained to free himself from distress at the expense of his virtue, may animate multitudes, by his example, to the same firmness of heart and steadiness of resolution. Here lies, now a prey to insulting neglect, What once was a butterfly, gay in life's beam: Want only of goodness denied her esteem. III. COLERIDGE ON HIMSELF. 8. T. COLERIDGE. Stop, Christian passer-by, stop, child of God! Mercy, for praise-to be forgiven, for fame, He asked and hoped through Christ. Do thou the same IV. PUNNING EPITAPH ON JOSEPH BLACKETT.* Stranger! behold, interred together, And, if he did, 'twere shame to "Black-it." V. EPITAPH ON SAMUEL JOHNSON. Here Johnson lies-a sage by all allowed, BYRON WILLIAM COW PER Whom to have bred, may well make England proud; The graceful vehicle of virtuous thought; Whose verse may claim-grave, masculine, and strong, Who many a noble gift from heaven possessed, *Blackett was a shoemaker and a poet. VI. ON CHARLES II. Here lies our sovereign lord the king, VII. ON SIR ISAAC NEWTON. Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night: ROCHESTER VIII. A LIVING AUTHOR'S EPITAPH. From life's superfluous cares enlarged, A spot of earth is now his all! Oh! wish that earth may lightly lay, Bring flowers, the short-lived roses bring, And sweets around the poet strow, Whilst yet with life his ashes glow OOWLEY. IX. ON A MISER. Here crumbling lies beneath this mold Though twice ten thousand filled his chest; EXERCISE XLIV. NOTHING BUT LEAVES. I. Nothing but leaves; the spirit grieves Sin committed while conscience slept, Hatred, battle, and strife; Nothing but leaves! II. Nothing but leaves; no garnered sheaves III. Nothing but leaves; memory weaves No vail to screen the past: As we retrace our weary way, Counting each lost and misspent day We find, sadly, at last, Nothing but leaves! |