Consolation in the Face of Death (Penguin) Page 4

  Yet I must confess, that considering the Success with which the present Ministry has hitherto proceeded in their Attempts to drive out of the World the old Prejudices of Patriotism and publick Spirit, I cannot but entertain some Hopes that what has been so often attempted by their Predecessors, is reserved to be accomplished by their superior Abilities.

  If I might presume to advise them upon this great Affair, I should dissuade them from any direct Attempt upon the Liberty of the Press, which is the Darling of the common People, and therefore cannot be attacked without immediate Danger. They may proceed by a more sure and silent Way, and attain the desired End without Noise, Detraction, or Opposition.

  There are scatter’d over this Kingdom several little Seminaries in which the lower Ranks of People, and the younger Sons of our Nobility and Gentry are taught, from their earliest infancy, the pernicious Arts of Spelling and Reading, which they afterwards continue to practise very much to the Disturbance of their own Quiet, and the Interruption of ministerial Measures.

  These Seminaries may, by an Act of Parliament, be at once suppressed, and that our Posterity be deprived of all Means of reviving this corrupt Method of Education, it may be made Felony to teach to read, without a License from the Lord Chamberlain.

  This Expedient, which I hope will be carefully concealed from the Vulgar, must infallibly answer the great End proposed by it, and set the Power of the Court not only above the Insults of the Poets, but in a short Time above the Necessity of providing against them. The Licenser having his Authority thus extended will in Time enjoy the Title and the Salary without the Trouble of exercising his Power, and the Nation will rest at length in Ignorance and Peace.

  An

  ESSAY on

  EPITAPHS

  Tho’ 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; tho’ 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 enquire, and perhaps impossible to discover; it might be justly expected that this Kind of Writing would have been the favourite Topic of Criticism, and that Self-Love might have produced some Regard for it, in those Authors that have crowded Libraries with elaborate Dissertations upon Homer; since to afford a Subject for heroick Poems is the Privilege of very few, 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 Panegyrick.

  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 ye same Ends might be obtained. Nature and Reason have dictated 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 Enquiries; 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 Word, so 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 Excellencies, the 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 Effect as the Observation of his Life. Those EPITAPHS are, therefore, the most perfect, which set Virtue in the strongest Light, and are best adapted to exalt the Reader’s Ideas, and rouse his Emulation.

  To this End it is not always necessary to recount the Actions of a Hero, or enumerate the Writings of a Philosopher; to imagine such Informations necessary, is to detract from their Characters, or to suppose their Works mortal, or their Atchievements in danger of being forgotten. The bare Name of such Men answers every Purpose of a long Inscription.

  Had only the Name of Sir ISAAC NEWTON been subjoined to the Design upon his Monument, instead of a long Detail of his Discoveries, which no Philosopher can want, and which none but a Philosopher can understand, those by whose Direction it was raised, had done more Honour both to him and to themselves.

  This indeed is a Commendation which it requires no Genius to bestow, but which can never become vulgar or contemptible, if bestow’d with Judgment; because no single Age produces many Men of Merit superior to Panegyrick. None but the first Names can stand unassisted against the Attacks of Time, and if Men raised to Reputation by Accident or Caprice have nothing but their Names engraved on their Tombs, there is Danger lest in a few Years the Inscription require an Interpreter. Thus have their Expectations been disappointed who honoured Picus of Mirandola, with this pompous Epitaph,

  Hic situs est PICUS MIRANDOLA, cætera norunt

  Et Tagus et Ganges, forsan et Antipodes.

  [‘Here lies Pico della Mirandola: the Tagus, the Ganges, even the Antipodes, know the rest.’]

  His Name then celebrated in the remotest Corners of the Earth is now almost forgotten, and his Works, then studied, admired, and applauded, are now mouldering in Obscurity.

  Next in Dignity to the bare Name is a short Character simple and unadorned, without Exaggeration, Superlatives, or Rhetoric. Such were the Inscriptions in Use among the Romans, in which the Victories gained by their Emperors were commemorated by a single Epithet; as Cæsar Germanicus, Cæsar Dacicus, Germanicus, Illyricus. Such would be this Epitaph, ISAACUS NEWTONUS, Naturæ Legibus investigatis, hic quiescit. [‘Having searched out the laws of nature, Isaac Newton rests here.’]

  But to far the greatest Part of Mankind a longer Encomium is necessary for the Publication of their Virtues, and the Preservation of their Memories, and in the Composition of these it is that Art is principally required, and Precepts therefore may be useful.

  In writing EPITAPHS, one circumstance is to be considered, which affects no other Composition; the Place in which they are now commonly found restrains them to a particular Air of Solemnity, and debars them from the Admission of all lighter or gayer Ornaments. In this it is that the Stile of an EPITAPH necessarily differs from that of an ELEGY. The Customs of burying our Dead either in or near our Churches, perhaps originally founded on a rational Design of fitting the Mind for religious Exercises, by laying before it the most affecting Proofs of the Uncertainty of Life, makes it proper to exclude from our EPITAPHS all such Allusions as are contrary to the Doctrines for the Propagation of which the Churches are erected, and to the End for which those who peruse the Monuments must be supposed to come thither. Nothing is, therefore, more ridiculous than to copy the Roman Inscriptions which were engraven on Stones by the Highway, and composed by those who generally reflected on Mortality only to excite in themselves and others a quicker Relish of Pleasure, and a more luxurious Enjo
yment of Life, and whose Regard for the Dead extended no farther than a Wish that the Earth might be light upon them.

  All Allusions to the Heathen Mythology are therefore absurd, and all Regard for the senseless Remains of a dead Man impertinent and superstitious. One of the first Distinctions of the primitive Christians was their Neglect of bestowing Garlands on the Dead, in which they are very rationally defended by their Apologist in Minutius Felix. We lavish no Flowers nor Odours on the Dead, says he, because they have no Sense of Fragrance or of Beauty. We profess to Reverence the Dead not for their Sake but for our own. It is therefore always with Indignation or Contempt that I read the Epitaph on Cowley, a Man whose Learning and Poetry were his lowest Merits.

  Aurea dum late volitant tua Scripta per Orbem,

  Et fama eternum vivis, divine Poeta,

  Hic placida jaceas requie, custodiat urnam

  Cana, Fides, vigilentque perenni Lampade Musæ!

  Sit sacer ille locus, nec quis temerarius ausit

  Sacrilega turbare manu venerabile bustum,

  Intacti maneant, maneant per sæcula dulces

  COWLEII cineres, serventq; immobile Saxum.

  [‘O divine poet, while your golden writings fly far and wide throughout the globe and you live perpetually in fame, may you lie here in peaceful rest. May aged faith guard your urn, and may the muses keep watch over you with their inextinguishable torch. May this place be sacred, and let no one be so rash as to dare disturb this venerable bust with sacrilegious hand. May Cowley’s dust rest undisturbed, rest through sweet ages, and may his tombstone be unmoved.’]

  To pray, that ye Ashes of a Friend may lie undisturbed, and that the Divinities that favoured him in his Life, may watch for ever round him to preserve his Tomb from Violation and drive Sacrilege away, is only rational in him who believes the Soul interested in the Repose of the Body, and the Powers which he invokes for its Protection able to preserve it. To censure such Expressions as contrary to Religion, or as Remains of Heathen Superstition, would be too great a Degree of Severity. I condemn them only as uninstructive and unaffecting, as too ludicrous for Reverence or Grief, for Christianity and a Temple.

  That the Designs and Decorations of Monuments, ought likewise to be formed with the same Regard to the Solemnity of the Place, cannot be denied; It is an established Principle that all Ornaments owe their Beauty to their Propriety. The same Glitter of Dress that adds Graces to Gayety and Youth, would make Age and Dignity contemptible. CHARON with his Boat is far from heightening the awful Grandeur of the universal Judgment, tho’ drawn by Angelo himself; nor is it easy to imagine a greater Absurdity than that of gracing the Walls of a Christian Temple with the Figure of Mars leading a Hero to Battle, or Cupids sporting round a Virgin. The Pope who defaced the Statues of the Deities, at the Tomb of Sannazarius is, in my opinion, more easily to be defended than he that erected them.

  It is for the same Reason improper to address the EPITAPH to the Passenger, a Custom which in injudicious Veneration for Antiquity introduced again at the Revival of Letters, and which, among many others, Passeratius suffered to mislead him in his EPITAPH upon the Heart of Henry King of France, who was stabbed by Clement the Monk, which yet deserves to be inserted, for the Sake of showing how beautiful even Improprieties may become in the Hands of a good Writer.

  Adsta, Viator, et dole regum vices.

  Cor Regis isto conditur sub marmore,

  Qui jura Gallis, jura Sarmatis dedit;

  Tectus Cucullo hunc sustulit Sicarius.

  Abi, Viator, et dole regum vices.

  [‘Pause, traveller, and commiserate the fate of kings. Beneath this marble is laid the heart of a king who gave laws equally to the French and to the Poles. A murderer hidden beneath a cowl killed him. Pass on, traveller, and commiserate the fate of kings.’]

  In the Monkish Ages, however ignorant and unpolished, the EPITAPHS were drawn up with far greater Propriety than can be shown in those, which more enlightened Times have produced.

  Orate pro Anima —— miserrimi Peccatoris

  [‘Pray for the soul of —— a most miserable sinner’]

  was an Address to the last Degree striking and solemn, as it flowed naturally from the Religion then believed, and awakened in the Reader Sentiments of Benevolence for the Deceased, and of Concern for his own Happiness. There was Nothing trifling or ludicrous, Nothing that did not tend to the noblest End, the Propagation of Piety and the Increase of Devotion.

  It may seem very superfluous to lay it down as the first Rule for writing EPITAPHS, that the Name of the Deceased is not to be omitted; nor should I have thought such a Precept necessary, had not the Practice of the greatest Writers shewn, that it has not been sufficiently regarded. In most of the Poetical EPITAPHS, the Names for whom they were composed may be sought to no Purpose, being only prefixed on the Monument. To expose ye Absurdity of this Omission, it is only necessary to ask how the EPITAPHS, which have outlived the Stones on which they were inscribed, would have contributed to the Information of Posterity, had they wanted the Names of those whom they celebrated.

  In drawing the Character of the Deceased, there are no Rules to be observ’d which do not equally relate to other Compositions. The Praise ought not to be general, because the Mind is lost in the Extent of any indefinite Idea, and cannot be affected with what it cannot comprehend. When we hear only of a good or great Man, we know not in what Class to place him, nor have any Notion of his Character, distinct from that of a thousand others; his Example can have no Effect upon our Conduct, as we have nothing remarkable or eminent to propose to our Imitation. The EPITAPH composed by Ennius for his own Tomb, has both the Faults last mentioned,

  Nemo me decoret lacrumis, nec funera, fletu

  Faxit. Cur? – volito vivu’ per ora virum.

  [Let no one honour me with tears, nor lay me in the earth with weeping. Why? I live in the mouths of men.]

  The Reader of this EPITAPH receives scarce any Idea from it; he neither conceives any Veneration for the Man to whom it belongs, nor is instructed by what Methods this boasted Reputation is to be obtained.

  Tho’ a sepulchral Inscription is professedly a Panegyric, and, therefore, not confined to historical Impartiality, yet it ought always to be written with regard to Truth. No Man ought to be commended for Virtues which he never possessed, but whoever is curious to know his Faults must enquire after them in other Places; the Monuments of the Dead are not intended to perpetuate the Memory of Crimes, but to exhibit Patterns of Virtue. On the Tomb of Mœcenas, his Luxury is not to be mentioned with his Munificence, nor is the Proscription to find a Place on the Monument of Augustus.

  The best Subject for EPITAPHS is private Virtue; Virtue exerted in the same Circumstances in which the Bulk of Mankind are placed, and which, therefore, may admit of many Imitators. He that has delivered his Country from Oppression, or freed the World from Ignorance and Error, can excite the Emulation of a very small Number; but he that has repelled the Temptations of Poverty, and disdained to free himself from Distress at the Expence of his Virtue, may animate Multitudes, by his Example, to the same Firmness of Heart and Steadiness of Resolution.

  Of this Kind I cannot forbear the Mention of two Greek Inscriptions; one upon a Man whose Writings are well known, the other upon a Person whose Memory is preserved only in her EPITAPH, who both lived in Slavery, the most calamitous Estate in human Life.

  Zosima, quœ solo fuit olim Corpore Serva,

  Corpore nunc etiam libera facta fuit.

  Zosima, who in her Life could only have her Body enslaved,

  now finds her Body likewise set at Liberty.

  It is impossible to read this EPITAPH without being animated to bear the Evils of Life with Constancy, and to support the Dignity of Human Nature under the most pressing Afflictions, both by the Example of the Heroine, whose Grave we behold, and the Prospect of that State in which, to use the Language of the inspired Writers, The Poor cease from their Labours, and the Weary be at rest.

  The
other is upon Epictetus, the Stoic Philosopher.

  Servus Epictetus, mutilatus corpore, vixi

  Pauperieque Irus, Curaque prima Deum.

  Epictetus, who lies here, was a Slave and a Cripple, poor as

  the Begger in the Proverb, and the Favourite of Heaven.

  In this Distich is comprised the noblest Panegyric, and the most important Instruction. We may learn from it that Virtue is impracticable in no Condition, since Epictetus could recommend himself to the Regard of Heaven, amidst the Temptations of Poverty and Slavery; Slavery, which has always been found so destructive to Virtue that in many Languages a Slave and a Thief are expressed by the same Word. And we may be likewise admonished by it, not to lay any Stress on a Man’s outward Circumstances in making an Estimate of his real value, since Epictetus the Begger, the Cripple, and the Slave, was the Favourite of Heaven.

  The Vision of Theodore, the Hermit of

  Teneriffe, found in his cell

  Son of Perseverance, whoever thou art, whose curiosity has led thee hither, read and be wise. He that now calls upon thee is Theodore, the Hermit of Teneriffe, who in the fifty-seventh year of his retreat left this instruction to mankind, lest his solitary hours should be spent in vain.

  I was once what thou art now, a groveller on the earth, and a gazer at the sky; I trafficked and heaped wealth together, I loved and was favoured, I wore the robe of honour and heard the music of adulation; I was ambitious, and rose to greatness; I was unhappy, and retired. I sought for some time what I at length found here, a place where all real wants might be easily supplied, and where I might not be under the necessity of purchasing the assistance of men by the toleration of their follies. Here I saw fruits and herbs and water, and here determined to wait the hand of death, which I hope, when at last it comes, will fall lightly upon me.