Page:A Letter from Mr John Monro to the Publisher, concerning the Catacombs of Rome and Naples (IA paper-doi-10 1098 rstl 1700 0043).pdf/7

 so the Country might not be depriv'd of the benefit of its tutelage. This I humbly conceive was the original of Burning, which by degrees became more and more universal, till at last the pomp and magnificence of it reconcil'd it to all that were able to go to the length of the expence.

As for the prejudice of the silence of the Ancient Authors in matter, 'tis easily remov'd, and to be regreted at the same time that the Authors of all Ages too much negle teh customs of their own time. Writing for the satisfaion of their contemporaries, they think it impertinent to trouble them with the account of what they see transsaed every day. By this means the ancient customs, with the time, and reasons of their disuse, are lost with respe to us,and ours with the same circumstances may come to be so with relation to posterity. As the Authors are pleas'd to adopt them for their Children, one wou'd wonder greater care is not taken not to entail visisble occasions of complaint on them; nay, one wou'd wonder more, to see these Gentlemen so little ambitions of a future reputation, when they may infallibly assure it themselves, without resigning the present, by transmitting the knowledge of things, the knowledge of which may in a small series of years become otherwise irretrievable; they cannot but observe every day what esteem is plac'd on those Authors, to whom we are forc'd to go, to find in them what cannot be found elsewhere, to compare with the other, in whom nothing is to be found, but what men of Reason are able to find at home.

Upon the whole, the Catacombs I humbly conceive were the Burying-places of the ancient Romans; at length the manner of Burning, which they received from the Græcians, coming by degrees to prevail universally, they full under a total negle. This is the State in which the Primitive Christians must be suppos'd to