Forgotten Stories.

We have left , but not forgotten you , beautiful creatures ! Often , when we are sitting in solitude , with a pen behind our ear , and a proof before our eyes , you come , hand in hand to our imagination 1 Some , indeedenjoin us to prefer esteem to

fasci-, nation ;—to write Sonnets to Sensibility , aud to look for a wife in Sense . These are the suggestions of age , perhaps of prudence . We are young , and may be allowed to shake our heads as we listen ! P . O .

On Country Churchyard Epitaphs.

ON COUNTRY CHURCHYARD EPITAPHS .

" Their name , their years , spelt by the unletter'd Muse , The place of fame aud elegy supply ; And many a holy text around she strews , That teach the rustic moralist to die . ;' GRAY ' ELEGY .

IT IS an incident worthy of remark , that the love of fame , which so powerfull y actuates our hearts , and predominates in our words and actions during life , does not even desert us , when the prospect of dissolution is so immediately before our eyes ,

and we cannot deny that all onr labours for the acquisition of worldly glory are at an end . Human nature is still desirous of attracting the attention and admiration of survivors , although she is conscious of her own impotency in witnessing it . We may , indeed , have heard many exclaiming against expense and ostentation in the performance

of their obsequies ; but we shall rarel y meet with the man who woidd willingly dispense with a plain stone to mark the resting-place of his ashes , or a short inscription to attest his existence . Fewvery few , can brook the idea of a stranger treading upon the sod beneath which they

repose ; unless it is in their power to inform him of theh names and their ages ;—unless they can remind him that they were once , as he is , living;—that they have passed the barrier which he must pass—mortality The origin of this weakness , —this desire of posthumous fame , must be traced to the same principle which actuates us , and excites all our bodily and mental powers

On Country Churchyard Epitaphs.

" uring life—which impels one to grasp the Pike , and another the pen—which urges s ome to shine in divinity , and others in driving—some to study slang , and others to study sonneteering ; the very same which invites the Etonian to inscribe his

name on the oaken panels of our venerable schoolroom , and persuades the Churchwarden to adorn the newly painted commandments with his own important initials . But I am rambling in a most strange manner from my subject;—I will ,

therefore ( missis ambagibus ) , return to my original topic . The boast of heraldry and the pomp of phraseology , which so repeatedly and disgustingly obtrude themselves upon my view , in many of the sepulchral monuments of cities , are , in my opinion , calculated to inspire no feeling , save that of derision and

contempt . But the uncouth , though not always unpleasing , epitaphs which we generally meet with in country churchyards , are by no means undeserving of our attention . They have a peculiarity of expression , which is strikingly opposite to

the polished and elaborately elegant phrases , which designate the tombs of courtiers and citizens ; and although we cannot always , upon perusing their awkward rhymes and measures , repress our laughter , their simplicity often merits and often obtains the

tribute of a sigh . Having sometimes amused myself during my rambles , by compiling ( more Peregrihi ) a sort of scrap-book , in which I have inserted most of the epitaphs remarkable-for their uncouth phraseology , or their eleo-ant simplicity , I will make a few extracts from it . of . both species . Take the following , reader : —

"Hedied of a quinsey , And was buried at Binsey . " This I selected from a village churchyard in Nottinghamshire , during my last Easter vacation , and added it to my collection , as an admirable instance of the observance of

that Horatian canon , ' f in medias res . " Analyze it , reader . How could the author have better shown his talent for brevit y ? A mrae poetical composer of epitaphs , if he had been desired to work up a tribute of respect to the manes of poor John Doley , the above mentioned victim of a quinsey , would have been seized with a fit of