Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 4.djvu/211

Rh A generous faith, from superstition free; A love to peace, and hate of tyranny: Such this man was; who now, from earth remov'd, At length enjoys that liberty he lov'd.

In this epitaph, as in many others, there appears, at the first view, a fault which I, think scarcely any beauty can compensate. The name is omitted. The end of an epitaph is to convey some account of the dead; and to what purpose is any thing told of him whose name is concealed? An epitaph, and a history of a nameless hero, are equally absurd, since the virtues and qualities so recounted in either are scattered at the mercy of fortune to be appropriated by guess. The name, it is true, may be read upon the stone; but what obligation has it to the poet, whose verses wander over the earth, and leave their subject behind them, and who is forced, like an unskilful painter, to make his purpose known by adventitious help?

This epitaph is wholly without elevation, and contains nothing striking or particular; but the poet is not to be blamed for the defects of his subject. He said perhaps the best that could be said. There are, however, Rh