ingloriously into the grave, but wish to be paid that tribute of panegyric after their deaths, which in many cases may not be due to the virtues of their lives. If the vanity of the departed has not been provident of monumental honours, the partiality of friends is eager to supply them. Death may be said with almost equal propriety to confer as well as to level all distinctions. In consequence of that event, a kind of chemical operation takes place; for those characters which were mixed with the gross particles of vice, by being thrown into the alembic of flattery, are sublimated into the essence of virtue. He who, during the performance of his part upon the stage of the world, was little if at all applauded, after the close of the drama, is portrayed as the favourite of "every Virtue under heaven." To save the opulent from oblivion, the sculptor unites his labours with the scholar or the poet, whilst the rustic is indebted for his mite of posthumous renown to the carpenter, the painter, or the mason. The structures of fame are in both cases built with materials whose duration is short. It may check the sallies of pride to reflect on the mortality of man; but for its complete humiliation let it be remembered, that epitaphs and monuments decay. Had not Cicero been assisted by his memory, he could never have deciphered the mutilated verses on the tomb of Archimedes. The antiquarian searches in vain for the original inscriptions on Chaucer and Sidney.

The observations of the illustrious Johnson on epitaphs are marked with acuteness as well as extent of judgment. In his criticisms, however, on those of Pope, he has shown a petulance of temper

and fastidiousness of taste, at the same time that he acknowledged the barrenness of Pope's topics, and the difficulty of distributing to numbers that praise which is particular and characteristic. He who is a critic should consider, that, according to the natural progress of human opinions, he may become the subject of criticism. If Johnson had ever conjectured that he must one day be tried by his own laws, more lenity would probably have been shown to Pope. The doctor remarks, "that an epitaph ought not to be longer than common beholders have leisure and patience to peruse." Of the few he has left behind him, that on Hanmer is surely objectionable for its prolixity. He reprobates with just severity any allusions to classical customs, and the situation of Roman tombs. The lines of Passeratius on Henry of France are quoted, to show the impropriety of addressing the reader as a traveller. Yet the doctor forgot his strictures and his quotation when he concluded his character of Thrale with Abi, viator.

The preceding remarks are intended as an introduction to a plan which I take this opportunity of laying before the public. It is my design to publish a collection of the most remarkable epitaphs, with critical observations. Particular attention will be paid to their arrangement, of which it shall be the object of the remaining part of this paper to exhibit an exact specimen. Without spinning too many threads of classification, a few striking and general distinctions only shall be adopted: the LEARNED→ the SUBLIME-the CHARACTERISTIC-the COMPLI MENTARY. The first class is intended to allure the scholars of our famous universities to subscribe

liberally to the work. To let the reader into a secret, it was originally my design to have published this part in a folio by itself, with a pompous dedication. Happening to see a goose singed with a leaf of the Pietas Oxoniensis, I was frightened from the prosecution of my plan by so unlucky an omen. My intended work will, notwithstanding, comprise learning enough to satisfy the appetite of a reasonable linguist. There will be no room for complaint if I begin with Persian, and end with Latin. The first epitaph shall be that on Hadgi Shaughsware, in Saint Botolph's Bishopsgate; and the last shall be the laconic Fui Caius, at Cambridge.

Under this head, many ingenious and novel opinions will be advanced relative to the language as well as the sentiments of these compositions. It will be proved to a demonstration, that the learned languages are absurdly used except for learned men. Some one has well observed, that, if the dead could hear their own sepulchral praise, they would be put to the blush. Some, without doubt, would with amiable diffidence adopt the elegant sentiments of Frontinus, Impensa monimenti supervacua est; memoria nostri durabit, si vitâ meruimus.-"Superfluous is the expense of the tomb, since our me mory will flourish if our conduct has merited that honour." But multitudes must be insensible to the emotions of shame, unless they were endued with the gift of tongues. The moral design of an epitaph is to inspire an emulation of the virtues of the deceased. This cannot be effected, unless the lan. guage which records those virtues be intelligible to persons who are in a situation to emulate them. The talents and munificence of Busby and South

are transmitted to scholars by a vehicle which is familiar to them; but how can the ladies improve by the example of the beautiful Mrs. Arundel, who is celebrated in a Latin inscription in Saint Mary's Oxford? or how is the courage of our sailors likely to be increased by the Ciceronian periods on Rooke at Canterbury?

The SUBLIME. This species is confined to those who occupy the most distinguished niches in the temple of Fame. Simplicity and brevity are its characteristics. Such names as Bacon, Locke, and Newton, want not the flowers of eloquence, or the parade of periods, to decorate their monuments. The tomb of sir Christopher Wren has a local propriety from his being buried in St. Paul's, which gave birth to an inscription worthy of that illustrious restorer of Attic architecture.

Subtus conditur hujus ecclesiæ et urbis conditor, qui vixit annos ultra nonaginta, non sibi sed bono publico. Lector, si monimentum requiris, circumspice.

The CHARACTERISTIC.-A class which far excels all the rest, as it contains examples of splendid talents and eminent virtues marked with peculiar and appropriate praise. Not only those epitaphs wherein their due measure of applause is distributed with nice discrimination to philosophers, poets, warriors, and statesmen, will be introduced under this head, but such likewise as have preserved the memory of the lowly and the ignoble. These compositions are as difficult to be met with as accurate miniatures. Dr. Johnson would have said that Pope's verses on Mrs. Corbet was a very proper exempli fication of this species. Perhaps the following by

Hawkesworth, in Bromley church-yard, is by no means inferior to it:

"Near this place lies the body of Elizabeth Monk, aged 101, the wife of John Monk, blacksmith, by whom she had no children. But Virtue would not suffer her to be childless. An infant, to whom and to whose father and uncles she had been nurse, became dependent upon strangers for the necessaries of life; to him she afforded the protection of a mother. This parental charity was returned with filial affection, and she was supported in the feebleness of age by him whom she had cherished in the helplessness of infancy. Let it be remembered, that there is no station in which industry will not obtain power to be liberal, nor any character on which liberality will not confer honour. She had long been prepared, by a simple and unaffected piety, for her end. To preserve the memory of this person, but yet more to perpetuate the lesson of her life, this stone was erected by voluntary contribution."

The COMPLIMENTARY.-This article comprises inscriptions, in which the dead are more indebted for their praise to invention than to merit. The writers of epitaphs ought to be historians, and not poets.

Their panegyric often fatigues with prolixity, and disgusts with fulsomeness. Take away the dates from complimentary epitaphs, and they have all the appearance of dedications. They exhibit the demigods of the golden age, or the immaculate heroes of romance. Like Addison's Cato, they seem to have been out of the reach of human passions or infirmities-of a nature too much exalted to excite