Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 4.djvu/216

212 Peace to thy gentle shade, and endless rest! Blest in thy genius, in thy love too blest; One grateful woman to thy same supplies What a whole thankless land to his denies.

Of this inscription the chief fault is, that it belongs less to Rowe, for whom it was written, than to Dryden, who was buried near him; and indeed gives very little information concerning either. To wish, Peace to thy shade, is too mythological to be admitted into a Christian temple: the ancient worship has infected almost all our other compositions, and might therefore be contented to spare our epitaphs. Let fiction, at least, cease with life, and let us be serious over the grave.

Here rests a woman, good without pretence, Blest with plain reason, and with sober sense; No conquest she, but o'er herself desir'd; No arts essay'd, but not to be admir'd. Passion and pride were to her soul unknown, Convinc'd that Virtue only is our own. Rh