No. XCIII. ON MONUMENTAL INSCRIP

TIONS.

IT

T was the early with of Pope, that, when he died, not a ftone might tell where he lay. It is a wifh that will commonly be granted with reluctance. The affection of thofe we leave behind us, is at a lofs for methods to display its wonted folicitude, and feeks confolation under forrow in doing honour to all that remains. It is natural that filial piety, parental tendernefs, and conjugal love, fhould mark, with fome fond memorial, the clay-cold spot where the form, ftill foftered in the bofom, moulders away. And did affection go no farther, who could cenfure? But, in recording the virtues of the departed, either zeal or vanity often leads to an excefs perfectly ludicrous.

A marble monument, with an infcription palpably falfe and ridiculously pompous, is far more offenfive to true tafte, than the wooden memorial of the ruftic, fculptured with painted bones, and decked out with death's-head in all the colours of the rainbow. There is an elegance and a claffical fimplicity in the turfclad heap of mould which covers the poor man's grave, though it has nothing to defend it from the infults of the proud, but a bramble. The primrofe that grows upon it is a better ornament, than the gilded lies on the oppreffor's tombstone.

The proftitution of praife is injurious to virtue. That imaginary life after death, which confifts in a remembrance of our worth cherished in the breasts of others, though it is defpifed by the fevere reafoner, has commonly been an additional motive for exertion to the nobleft fpirits that have dignified human nature. But when we fee the ftudied panegyric engraved on the marble that inclofes the remains of the worthlefs, we defpife the eulogium that mankind are mean enough to beftow on every one that will pay the price. Thus one powerful

powerful motive is loft, which might operate on the generous in ftimulating them to a worthy conduct.

On the tombstones of the truly great, it is certainly right that an infcription fhould be written confiftent with their dignity. In order to be fo, it must not be prolix. When their names and age make all the fepulchral hiftory of diftinguished perfonages, it seems to be implied that the reft is fufficiently known; but when the marble ambitiously enlarges on their excellence, it argues that the world wants the information. It is better that the paffenger, when he fees an eminent name, should recollect, while he ftrikes his penfive bofom, the virtues of its owner, than that his remarks fhould be anticipated by an obtruding narrative.

The ftyle of epitaphs ufually adopted has been too diffufe. The noble ancients, thofe patterns of unaffected magnificence, confulted real dignity in the brevity of their epitaphs. As an hiftorical monument, at an age when printing was unknown, they fometimes engraved the exploits of a warrior on the marble; but in general they recorded little more than the name of the departed. The Grecian mufe fometimes poured the fweet melody of verfe at the fhrine of a poet or hero; but he never condefcended to mean flattery, nor difplayed the bloated oftentation of a modern panegyric.

There are many excellent epitaphs in the English language, both in verfe and profe. In the diffuse kind, that on the infamous Chartres is a fine model. Weftminster Abbey exhibits many infcriptions written with manly, forcible, and energetic elegance. The great fault has been, a redundance of epithets in the fuperlative degree.

We have also many fine poetical epitaphs. Thofe of Dryden and Pope are the most deservedly celebrated; though thofe of Pope have been feverely criticised. In general, the metrical are inferior to the profaic. Some of the beft are crowded with antithefes, a fault which renders them inferior to the Grecian; and fome of the worft, many of which are found in the most public cœmeteries, ftand forth a difgrace to national tafte.

The

The love of rhyme defcends to the lowest ranks. The parish-clerk is commonly called upon for a ftave or two of verfes, by every ruftic that can raise a poft and rail to the memory of his relation; and there are few church-yards in the kingdom, where that favourite ftanza"Afflictions fore long time I bore," does not

occur more than once.

But our epitaphs are most commonly written in Latin; probably because it is intelligible to foreigners, and is capable of more elegance and elevation. Our country has produced many writers remarkable for beautiful latinity accordingly we find infcriptions in every part of the kingdom abounding with claffical expreffions. The misfortune has been, that many of them have encroached on the province of biography; and real dignity has been loft in the affectation of it, in a tedious and circumftantial detail of defcents, pedigrees, and relationship. The reader is tired, before he has obtained a clear idea of the character and family described. His eyes have failed, even if his attention perfevered. The epitaph on the pious Nelfon, for inftance, confifts of above eighty lines.

The punning and epigrammatic epitaph was much in fashion a century or two ago. That on fair Rofamond at Godstow might furely have been replete with tender fentiment, but it is merely a wretched distich of puns and monkish rhymes. This fpecies is at prefent quite exploded, and little need be faid to prove its great impropriety. Falfe wit is always mifplaced, but the true feems to be excluded from the epitaph. Who can bear merriment or buffoonery on a tombstone? The tender and elegiac, or the manly and fevere ftyle, feems to be beft adapted to the monuinental infcription. But neither the pathetic nor fublime is compatible with the ludicrous,

The authors of our epitaphs are feldom known. One of the beft that I can recollect, was the claffical Bourne. The few he has left us are mafter pieces. That in Westminster Abbey, on Dickinson the architect, is truly fublime.

In our island there has certainly been no dearth of genius for monumental infcriptions; though there is

one

one circumftance which might induce a foreigner to think the contrary. The famous Duchefs of Marlborough is faid to have offered, without fuccess, five hundred pounds for an epitaph adequate to the dignity of her Duke. Her grace, whofe tafte was not very juft, would probably have expected a hiftory long enough to cover with infcription the unwieldy pile of ftones called Blenheim-houfe. I cannot help thinking, that a tedious epitaph, minutely relating his atchievements, would rather leffen than exalt him in the eyes of mankind. Would not Alexander the Great have appeared rather beneath the dignity of that name, if it had been written on his tomb, that the fon of Philip was reputed to have been, in his day, the wifeft general, the boldeft hero, the most accomplished man, with a hundred other attributes? Would he have excited much admiration, if he had been handed down to us, merely in an epitaph abounding with thofe inflated fuperlatives, which gothic ideas of grandeur have now introduced? It might have been a complimentary epitaph on an Alderman, who died of repletion; and would have borne an analogy to him in the circumftance of an unnatural

tumour.

No. XCIV. CURSORY THOUGHTS ON BIO

A

GRAPHY.

MONG the many arguments advanced to recommend the study of history, it has been faid, that it teaches wifdom without the danger of experience, and, by pointing out the paths of those who have gone before us, facilitates the journey of life. Hiftory has been called philofophy teaching by examples. But, after all, it must be allowed, that civil hiftory is lefs capable of regulating moral than political conduct. The defcriptions of battles, the accounts of debates, the characters of kings and heroes, contain very little that can regulate the actions of the private and the more numerous ranks in the community.

But

But an exact and authentic account of individuals, who have greatly excelled in any of the departments of active or contemplative life, feems to be a mode of inftruction best suited to an animal, like man, prone to imitation. When a fingle character is diftinctly delineated, we can purfue the outline, with an eafe equal to that with which the painter copies from the original picture placed before his eyes. We have the exprefs authority of the pattern we have chofen to direct us in every emergency, and can tread, with implicit confidence, in the footsteps of the moft diftinguished men, without the fufpenfe of deliberate felection. It is the remark of Ariftotle, the ftory of an individual, as it is a fingle object, is comprehended more fully, and therefore attended to with greater pleasure, than a history in which many perfonages are introduced.

For thefe reafons, biography appears to be more inftructive than civil hiftory, though it has commonly been written with a lefs degree of attention. Herodotus is all fweetnefs. Thucydides exhibits the folid and auftere beauties. Xenophon, the attic bee, prefents us with a style flowing with honey. Livy difplays a moft mafterly compofition, and paints in glowing colours all that he relates. Salluft rivals his Grecian mafter; Guicciardin and Vertot have exhibited in their writings fome of the genuine graces of the hiftoric mufe. But among biographers, scarcely any can justly claim a rank with the first writers of the golden age.

As a diligent collector of facts, as a warm friend to virtue, as an entertaining narrator, I venerate the name of Plutarch. His writings bear evident marks of extenfive reading; and communicate much and multifarious knowledge. Theodore Gaza has faid, that if all books were loft, and he might recover one, it fhould be Plutarch. He is indeed an invaluable treasure of ancient learning; for he felected paffages from books now totally loft, and inferted them very liberally in his works. Add to this, that he is an admirable moralist. But his judgment feems not to have been always ftrong enough to manage the unwieldy mafs of learning he had affembled. He indulged the weakeft fuperftition. VOL. II.

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