Page:Cyclopedia of illustrations for public speakers, containing facts, incidents, stories, experiences, anecdotes, selections, etc., for illustrative purposes, with cross-references; (IA cyclopediaofillu00scotrich).pdf/233



Epidemic from Neglect—See.

Epitaph, Curious—See.

EPITAPHS

The following epitaphs, with the comment on them, are taken from the London Daily News:

There is an interesting epitaph on a gravestone in Poling churchyard, Sussex. It runs:

Here Lieth ye Body of Alice, ye wife, of Bobt Woolbridge, who Died the 27th of May, 1740. Aged 44 years.

The World is a round thing, And full of crooked streets. Death is a market place, Where all men meets. If Life was a thing That money could buy, The Rich would live, And the poor would die.

Here is another:

Poor Martha Snell has gone away, Her would if she could, but her couldn't stay, She had two sore legs and a badish cough, But it were her legs as carried her off.

Less comic, but more witty, is the epitaph found at Kingsbridge, S. Devon.

Here lieth the body of Robert (commonly called "Bone") Phillips, who died July 27th, 1793, aged 65 years, and at whose request the following lines are here inscribed:

Here lie I at the Chancel door; Here lie I because I am poor; The further in the more you'll pay, Yet here lie I as warm as they.

Here is an epitaph on a last-maker, who is said to be buried at Llanflantwythyl:

Stop, stranger, stop, and wipe a tear For the Last man at last lies here, Tho ever-last-ing he has been, He has at last passed life's last scene. Famed for good works, much time he passed, In doing good—He has done his last.

The following, more philosophic and general in its application, is on an eighteenth-century tombstone in Saint Mary's Parish Churchyard, Mold, North Wales.

Life's like an Inn where Travelers stay. Some only Breakfast, and away. Others to dinner stay, and are well fed. The oldest only sup and go to Bed. Long is the Bill who lingers out the day. He that goes the soonest Has the Least to Pay.

The correspondent also sends us an epitaph which has pithiness and force. It runs:

Here lies W. W. Who will nevermore trouble you.

It was an apitaph which called forth the following topical epigram from Dr. Samuel Clarke, who had just seen the inscription, "Domus Ultima," on the vault belonging to the Dukes of Richmond in the Cathedral of Chichester. In a mood of satire he wrote:

Did he who thus inscribed the wall Not read, or not believe, St. Paul, Who says there is, where'er it stands, Another house, not made with hands. Or may we gather from these words That house is not a House of Lords.

(934)

Equality, The Spirit of—See.

EQUALIZATION

The practise of some physicians is practically the philosophy of Christian socialism: "From every man according to his ability, to every man according to his need."

"A Philadelphia judge," says American Medicine, "has given expression to the opinion that 'the life of a rich man is worth more than the life of a poor man, and the physician has a right to charge the millionaire more for his services than he does the laborer.' He went on further to say that 'the physician is unlike the merchant, who has goods of different quality to sell at various prices. He must give his best service in every case. Human life has a pecuniary value of variable quality, greater in the millionaire than in the laborer. Thus, the practitioner of common sense has a maximum and a minimum charge, and makes out his bills to suit the pecuniary circumstances of his patients.'" The writer thinks that "there will be no dissent on the part of right-thinking people" from this view. Carried to its logical conclusion, it would ap