Lectures of Dr. Marsh, he must bear in mind, that the plans of the two works are dissimilar; and that certain bounds have been set to the excursions of the Bampton Lecturer, which were not prescribed to his distinguished fellow-laborer.

The work is accompanied with copious notes, containing selections from the writings of the most eminent authors on the subjects discussed.

Miscellanea.

ON EPITAPHS.

THAT it was customary from the beginning to bury the dead, is evident from the sacred accounts of the Patriarchs, and both decency and respect for the defunct authorise the usage. But it is a matter of doubt, whether Epitaphs or Inscriptions were introduced in the days of those pious characters. Fields were then purchased for sepulchres; Abraham bought the field of Machpelah, where he and his wife Sarah were buried; and afterwards Isaac and his wife Rebekah, and Jacob with his wife Leah. In Egypt the bodies were embalmed, and forty days allotted for the purpose. There is, indeed, much reason to think, from the different accounts we have of sons and husbands Occasionally visiting the graves of their fathers and wives, (which of course must have been identified by some particular mark,) that monuments were adopted at a very early period. We read that Jacob set a pillar on the grave of Rachel, the wife whom he loved best.

As the word Epitaph is derived from the Greek, (signifying upon a tomb) and Inscription from the Latin, the Greeks and Romans were probably the inventors of Epitaphs. The latter frequently exercised their wit upon those occasions, which was sometimes blended with obscurity-" Est, Est-quod nimium Est, Dominus mortuus est." No scholar could possibly translate this sentence without he knew the following story :-When the wine was deemed fit for the master's use, the servant marked it with the verb "Est," (it is good).-On tasting the wine, and finding that it was admirable, the enraptured servant made a

repetition of the word-Est! Est! (It is! It is!) The master equally delighted, drank too freely of the wine, which occasioned his death. The translation of course is-EST, EST-because there was an EST too much, the gentleman died.

In the churches and church-yards of this United Kingdom, we find many of the Epitaphs in the Latin language. Some of these might probably be exact copies of what the Romans, when they were converted to Christianity, had composed. Modern Epitaphs generally consist of fine-written verses, not well-written, as it is necessary thus to distinguish the bombastic and the melodious. How many amiable characters, philanthropists and patriots, may we meet with in a country church-yard, who, though recently deceased, would never have been known to the reader, had not the tomb-stones declared them as such! What ostentation and absurdity in those posthumous encomiums representing the present times as the Golden Age! The general cant of monumental praise is an affectionate fathera tender husband-and a sincere friend. Are these virtues then so rare, so extraordinary, as to render it absolutely necessary to record them over the mouldering remains of the father or husband? The works of a man alone immortalize his memory.-No Epitaph, though written by a Pope, can confer on the Philanthropist so lasting an eulogy as the asylums for the unfortunate, which his benevolence provides; the former, notwithstanding its melody, is, as Hamlet says, "Words—words— words!" but the latter is, "Demonstration strong as proof from Holy Writ."

It cannot be supposed that an Epitaph writer adheres to truth -he takes pains to enumerate all the virtues of the deceased, but thinks it proper that his vices should be buried with him! Now, if his real vices, instead of his pretended virtues, were candidly and impartially recorded, then the admonitory tombstone, which could not possibly affect the dust it covered, might be of essential service to the living. The mention of a faithless husband or wife or base seducer-an unnatural father or child-or a false friend, would be an excellent memento mori to readers of similar characters. These secrets are not to be found in modern Epitaphs; they are left to be revealed by the RECORDING ANGEL. The tomb-stones of the present day abound with conjugal fidelity, parental affection, filial piety, and universal benevolence! Such instances of human vanity are not to be met with in ancient Epitaphs: before the Reformation, the tomb-stones acknowledged, that underneath were deposited the remains of wretched sinners, and solicited the prayers

of the reader-" Orate pro animâ miserrimi peccatoris." Humility, and not ostentation, was the characteristic of that day, as appears from the following Latin-English old Epitaph, which probably suggested to O'Keeffe the amo amas of LINGO: "Hic jacet Tom Shorthose,

Sine cap, sine sheets, sine riches;
Qui vixit sine gown,

Sine cloak, sine shirt, sine breeches."

Effusions of a similar tendency may be still seen in our church-yards. The writer's curiosity was once attracted by four lines, scarcely legible, which were rudely cut upon a piece of timber, that seemed bowing to the dust whereof it was treating. After much labor, not ill bestowed, as it was effectual, the following couplets were made out :

"I've been a Pauper upon Earth-
Been always begging since my birth;
So mend-I-cant, but hope t' inherit

The joys made for the Poor in Spirit!"

It was evident why an humble piece of wood, instead of marble, bore this mendicant's inscription-but what of that? This poor Lazarus may rise from his modest bed of clay to a glorious inheritance, sooner than all the Diveses in the same place, whose monuments were piles of Pride and Ostentation! We may still in our church-yards discover the remains of common sense. The following expressive line, probably in vented by the Romans, must strike every reader of sensibility"Hodie mihi, cras tibi"-" To-day for me, to-morrow for thee." The writer candidly acknowledges he was more affected by this line, than by the elegiac verses of a neighbouring tombstone-burlesque in truth, for he was desired to join the marble in weeping. The sympathetic stone was indeed wet, but the tears were dew-drops from Heaven. These productions frequently set criticism at defiance-grammar is often violated. Near the communion-table of Christ's Church, by the excellent institution of which so many eminent scholars have been produced, is the following barbarous expression-" Here lies the remains,"

&c.

Monumental praise is indeed due to departed genius and virtue. The hero who, like NELSON, falls in his country's service, demands this last tribute from a grateful nation. The best Epitaphs for authors are quotations from their own works: who could have produced a better for Shakespeare, than the happily chosen one from his own play of the Tempest? The late John Palmer was highly deserving of the last words he NO.III. Aug. Rev. VOL. I.

X

uttered on the stage, in the Stranger-" There is another and a better world." And the late Irish poet-laureat might have had an Epitaph from his own Tragedy of the Count of Narbonne :

"Nature's common frailties set aside,
I'll meet my audit boldly."

A tax upon all Epitaphs written by partial friends, would doubtless have been more satisfactory to the public than the additional tax upon newspapers. It has been argued in favor of the latter measure, that the proprietors of diurnal prints, have gained considerable emolument in consequence of the interesting events of the last twenty years; and as the future events are likely to be equally interesting, the additional tax can be no object to the public, and therefore the proprietors can be no losers. It is to be hoped, that war and slaughter may not continue another twenty years; but if continued, we cannot see why the public should pay dearer for their future information, than they have paid for their past. The reader will pardon this digression, when he finds the introduction of newspapers, in some degree, allusive to the subject in question. Characters are frequently misrepresented by Epitaphs-so they are by newspapers. The dead are falsely panegyrised by the former; the living are sometimes represented as dead by the latter-How often has Bonaparte been killed by the editors of newspapers? His gallant antagonist, Wellington, has been assassinated in the same sources of information. A Sunday paper gave us a recent instance of premature death-Mr.Kemble, it was said, died precisely at half past six o'clock in the evening. This gentleman, however, lives, and it is to be hoped, that we may yet see him die on the stage, in the character of Coriolanus, at half past

nine o'clock.

The tax which the writer has proposed on Epitaphs, should be so much on every letter, cut on a tomb-stone, and double the money on every revival. A couplet would then often supply the place of an elegy, and perhaps a common hic jacet, with name, age, &c. serve instead of a tedious panegyric. Let Man, while living, endeavour to erect his own monument by his works, that when dead, he may have a claim to those expressive words, which so eloquently declare the merits of that great architect, Sir Christopher Wren

"Si monumentum requiris,
"Circumspice.

If that a monument you seek-
Look round-my edifices speak.

AMBULATOR.

303

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN SKULL. Dr. Gall, and Dr. Spurzheim as his continuator, have given to the world a fund of entertainment in their book on Craniology. We have been tempted to peruse that celebrated work, not however as physiologists, or as anatomists; but as admirers of the science of Physiognomy, for their profound skill in which, both the one and the other have long been greatly and justly renowned.

Most people admit that a human being consists of body and mind. About the manner of existence and residence of the one, except in the case of downright vagrants, mankind do not now dispute the police magistrates and the writers on the history of civil society having settled that point. But about the essence and position of the other, we all have doubts and sometimes make anxious inquiries; none of the metaphysicians, from Locke down to Stewart, having been able to satisfy us. In one or two particulars, however, we all agree; that there is a mind, and that its operations are much affected by the state of the brain. Now another fact, as to which mankind are rarely sceptical, is this, that the brain is deposited in the skull; and, we may add, that in proportion as it is more or less commodiously lodged, its agency contributes more or less to strength and vigor of intellect. In short, a well-formed cranium is to the brain, what a wellbuilt house is to its inhabitant. Now for the purpose of satisfying themselves and others, anatomists and physiologists have turned their attention to the position as well as the capacity of the cranium; and hence we cannot enter the apartment of almost any virtuoso, without being charmed with a long row-sometimes a magnificent vista, of well-scraped skulls, rising in regular gradation from that of the ape or jack-ass-up to that of the Lord of the creation himself. Ovid has described very happily, the grovelling position of the one; and the upright, sublime attitude of the other. But it is the size of the cranium that now principally concerns us; and on this we are to observe, that Dr. Spurzheim does not merely require, as all his predecessors have done, that the head be large, and that it be more remarkable for its extension fore and aft, than for its depth; but that it be formed so as to exhibit certain defined protuberances-on certain fixed places. For the sake of making the matter intelligible, one might state that the physiologists of the German school, do not, like the German sovereigns, desire to have their dominions nicely rounded; but rather, for the sake of a freer traffic with neighbours, strongly marked by a variety of capes and headlands. Dr. Spurzheim's mental diagnosis is neither more nor less than