Page:Epitaphs for country churchyards.djvu/19

Rh some few are original; and many, received from different sources, now appear in print for the first time.

The object of an Epitaph should be threefold: first, to commemorate the dead; secondly, to comfort the mourners; and thirdly, to teach a lesson to those who read it.

The first of these objects is accomplished in that part of an Epitaph which usually gives the name and the date. It has been, and often is still, the custom to add to this a sort of history of the deceased, a catalogue of their Christian graces and perfections: and it may be asked why I do not give some forms for the expression of these; but, as has been observed by one of the greatest of our living poets, "an Epitaph is not intended to be a biography." Is it not, therefore, better simply to give the name of the person over whose grave the stone is raised,—the age, perhaps, or the dates of birth and death? There may be occasions when it is well that some particular incident, either of life or death, should be recorded on the tomb, when some record should be written, even there, of what the deceased was or did in life; but as a general rule, it is better to make the inscription as simple as possible. This inscription may be commenced in many ways:—the words "In memory of," "In loving memory of," are among the most suitable expressions. The subjoined is from a German inscription at Basle:—