THE MICROCOS M. No. XIV. MONDAY, February 26, 1787. Locus eft et pluribus umbris.-HOR. Still I have room. A FRANCIS. CCORDING to my promife made in a former paper, I fhall dedicate this to the favors of correfpondents. They will fee that I have been careful to abridge nothing, but what was neceffary to reduce their letters to a more convenient fize. To THE MICROCOSMOPOLITAN. SIR, An ingenious paper of your's, containing fome acute and just observations on Epitaphs, induced me to offer for your inspection the following remarks on that fubject. Vol. I. I We' 'We need no other witness than our own confcience, to convictus of that inordinate love of Fame, fo predominant in all orders and ranks of " men. If then in the prime of life, this passion prevails over every other confideration, and out⚫ balances all objections thrown into the opposite 'fcale by virtue or religion; if those moralifts are 'to be credited, who contend, not without fome fhadow of reason, that the paffions operate on the human mind in a greater degree, as we draw nearer to our end; this, above all others, must confequently have greater influence at that awful period; fince its fole aim is to be the topic of ⚫ praise and admiration to its own and fucceeding generations. Why do the "fhort and fimple "annals of the poor," in the Country-Church'Yard, court the tribute of a tear from the fym'pathetic traveller? Why do we behold with wonder and aftonishment, the monumental re'cords of the rich and noble in that vast pile of antiquity, where the Princes and Prelates, the Heroes and Poets of this land, lie mouldering 'to gether? For the fame reason;-that defire of 'being distinguished, even after death, from the 'common herd of mortals, formed of the fame 'perishable materials as ourfelves. The unlettered 'ruftic 'ruftic exults as much in his ill fhaped rhimes, ' which afford matter of conversation to the humble tenants of his native Hamlet, as the trophied 'General in the fuperb folly of a ftupendous Maufoleum; both feel a proportionable degree of happiness, if they die with the hopes that their name fhall efcape the canker-worm of oblivion, In the gradual rife therefore and progrefs of 'different ftates, we may obferve with what judgement the legiflators felected this paffion, as 'the hinge on which many of their principal laws 'feem to turn; no incentive to virtue was found fo efficacious, as infcribing the actions of the ' dead on their monuments: thus inciting future heroes to fimilar exertions, by holding up to their eyes the laurels of their ancestors. ཝོ The Lacedemonians indeed thoroughly understood the force and policy of this last tribute to the memory of the dead, and enacted a law, prohibiting all in their realm from making Epitaphs on any perfons except thofe who had furrendered up their lives for the fervice of their country; and in what did the bulwark and glory ' of Sparta confift? In military valour! which the ' endeavoured to ftrengthen by a reward the most ⚫ endearing and grateful to the foul of man; a cer⚫tainty that his fame should furvive the frailty of 'human nature. When therefore we reflect on their utility, we 'cannot but lament the paufity of good Epitaphs; tho' it is indeed a kind of writing fo generally cultivated in all nations, that certainly there • must be sɔme in every country which redound as well to the honor of the author, as to the glory ⚫ of those whom they immortalize. I wave men'tioning many in our own language, which, tho' "excellent, are obvious to every one; but cannot ⚫ help claiming your attention to one not so generally known, and at the fame time remarkable for its elegance and fimplicity. Drayton was a 'Poet, who lived in the fixteenth century. Doe, pious marble, let thy readers know, • Protect his memory and preferve his Storye, "And And when thy ruines fhall difclame "His name, which cannot fade, fhall be How different are the Epitaph-writers of thefe days, when every tomb-ftone bears the 'ftrongest contradiction to truth and reafon. To 'be affured of this, only take a furvey of the burial places within the bills of mortality, and at the fame time a retrofpect of the lives of thofe, ' whose bones are adorned with this miferable and 'faithlefs defcant on their virtues; and you will 'find every day fome fresh proof, how frequently “Some kind friend supplies,, "Hic jacet, and a hundred lies." The notoriety indeed of their mifufe is fo flagrant among the French, that "Menteur comme "un Epitaph," paffes for a proverb with them. • But not to detain you any longer on this subject, I fhall present you with the following, as a fpecimen of honesty and integrity in an Epitaph 6 rarely to be found. It is written on an amphi'bious animal, vulgarly called a Marine; and I fufpect it to be the production of fome truehearted I 3 |
