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Article LOST. ← Page 2 of 2 Article AN ESSAY ON EPITAPHS. Page 1 of 4 Article AN ESSAY ON EPITAPHS. Page 1 of 4 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Lost.
That every fair and gracious thing I loved and lost is but a sting ; Another thorn thy memory , My little darling , bring to me . But kindly night doth pity pain : In all my dreams she comes again
; Her precious head is on my breast ; My happy arms caress her rest ; I hoar her words of tender glee ; My little darling kisses mo . Ah ! sweet is night—too sweet , too brief—When day recalls our bitterest grief ,
The hungry heart , the longing dire , That burns the soul with vain desire , The ancient cry of wild distress , The Rachel-mourning , comfortless , 0 God ! once more that face to see ! My little darling , come to me ! Rose Terry Cooke in Harper ' s Magazine
An Essay On Epitaphs.
AN ESSAY ON EPITAPHS .
WE take this remarkably interesting paper from a collection of Dr . Johnson ' s works , as we feel certain that it will commend itself alike to the taste of the archaologist and the feelings of the Freemason . It originally appeared in the " Gentlemen ' s Magazine , " in 1740 .
Though criticism has been cultivated in every age of learning , by men of great abilities and extensive knowledge , till the rules of writing are become rather burdensome than instructive to the mind !
though almost every species of composition has been the subject of particular treatises , and given birth to definitions , distinctions , precepts , and illustrations ; yet no critic of note that has fallen within my observation has hitherto thought sepulchral inscriptions worthy of a minute
examination , or pointed out with proper accuracy their beauties and defects . The reasons of this neglect it is useless to inquire , and perhaps impossible to discover ; it might be justly expected that this kind of writing would have been the
favourite topic of criticism , aud that selflove might have produced some regard for it , in those authors that have crowded libraries with elaborate dissertations upon
An Essay On Epitaphs.
Homer . Since to afford a subject for heroic poems is the privilege of very fe-w but every man may expect to be recorded ' in an epitaph , and therefore finds some interest in providing that his memory may not suffer by an unskilful
panegyric . If our prejudices in favour of antiquity deserve to have any part in the regulation of our studies , Epitaphs seem entitled to more than common regard , as they are probably of the same age with the art of
writing . The most ancient structures in the world , the Pyramids , are supposed to be sepulchral monuments , which either pride or gratitude erected , and the same passions which incited men to such laborious and expensive methods of
preserving their own memory or that of their benefactors , would doubtless incline them not to neglect any easier means by which the same ends might be obtained . Nature and reason have directed to every nation that to preserve good actions from oblivion
is both the interest and duty of mankind , and therefore we find no people acquainted with the use of letters that omitted to grace the tombs of their heroes and wise
men with panegyrical inscriptions . To examine , therefore , in what the perfection of Epitaphs consists , and what rules are to be observed in composing them , will be at least of as much use as other critical inquiries , and for assigning
a few hours to such disquisitions great examples at least , if not strong reasons , may be pleaded . An epitaph , as the word itself implies , is an inscription on a 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 wordso that it
, signifies in the general acceptation , an inscription engraven on a tomb in honour of the person deceased . As honours are paid to the dead in order to incite others to the imitation of their excellenciesthe 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
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Lost.
That every fair and gracious thing I loved and lost is but a sting ; Another thorn thy memory , My little darling , bring to me . But kindly night doth pity pain : In all my dreams she comes again
; Her precious head is on my breast ; My happy arms caress her rest ; I hoar her words of tender glee ; My little darling kisses mo . Ah ! sweet is night—too sweet , too brief—When day recalls our bitterest grief ,
The hungry heart , the longing dire , That burns the soul with vain desire , The ancient cry of wild distress , The Rachel-mourning , comfortless , 0 God ! once more that face to see ! My little darling , come to me ! Rose Terry Cooke in Harper ' s Magazine
An Essay On Epitaphs.
AN ESSAY ON EPITAPHS .
WE take this remarkably interesting paper from a collection of Dr . Johnson ' s works , as we feel certain that it will commend itself alike to the taste of the archaologist and the feelings of the Freemason . It originally appeared in the " Gentlemen ' s Magazine , " in 1740 .
Though criticism has been cultivated in every age of learning , by men of great abilities and extensive knowledge , till the rules of writing are become rather burdensome than instructive to the mind !
though almost every species of composition has been the subject of particular treatises , and given birth to definitions , distinctions , precepts , and illustrations ; yet no critic of note that has fallen within my observation has hitherto thought sepulchral inscriptions worthy of a minute
examination , or pointed out with proper accuracy their beauties and defects . The reasons of this neglect it is useless to inquire , and perhaps impossible to discover ; it might be justly expected that this kind of writing would have been the
favourite topic of criticism , aud that selflove might have produced some regard for it , in those authors that have crowded libraries with elaborate dissertations upon
An Essay On Epitaphs.
Homer . Since to afford a subject for heroic poems is the privilege of very fe-w but every man may expect to be recorded ' in an epitaph , and therefore finds some interest in providing that his memory may not suffer by an unskilful
panegyric . If our prejudices in favour of antiquity deserve to have any part in the regulation of our studies , Epitaphs seem entitled to more than common regard , as they are probably of the same age with the art of
writing . The most ancient structures in the world , the Pyramids , are supposed to be sepulchral monuments , which either pride or gratitude erected , and the same passions which incited men to such laborious and expensive methods of
preserving their own memory or that of their benefactors , would doubtless incline them not to neglect any easier means by which the same ends might be obtained . Nature and reason have directed to every nation that to preserve good actions from oblivion
is both the interest and duty of mankind , and therefore we find no people acquainted with the use of letters that omitted to grace the tombs of their heroes and wise
men with panegyrical inscriptions . To examine , therefore , in what the perfection of Epitaphs consists , and what rules are to be observed in composing them , will be at least of as much use as other critical inquiries , and for assigning
a few hours to such disquisitions great examples at least , if not strong reasons , may be pleaded . An epitaph , as the word itself implies , is an inscription on a 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 wordso that it
, signifies in the general acceptation , an inscription engraven on a tomb in honour of the person deceased . As honours are paid to the dead in order to incite others to the imitation of their excellenciesthe 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