the use to which it is applied, with the folemnity of the building, and the condition of the people who lie in it, are apt to fill the mind with a kind of melancholy, or rather thoughtfulness, that is not difagreeable. I yesterday paffed a whole afternoon in the church-yard, the cloifters, and the church, amusing myself with the tomb-ftones and infcriptions that I met with in thofe feveral regions of the dead. Most of them recorded nothing elfe of the buried perfon, but that he was born upon one day, and died upon another: the whole history of his life being comprehended in those two circumftances, that are common to all mankind. I could not but look upon these registers of exiftence, whether of brass or marble, as a kind of fatire upon the departed perfons; who had left no other memorial of them, but that they were born, and that they died. They put me in mind of several perfons mentioned in the battles of heroic poems, who have founding names given them, for no other reafon but that they may be killed, and are celebrated for nothing but being knocked on the head, Γλαύκοντε, Μεδοντα τε, Θερσίλοχον τε. HOм. Glaucumque, Medontaque, Therfilochumque. VIRG. Glaucus, and Medon, and Therfilochus. The life of these men is finely described in holy writ by the path of an arrow, which is immediately closed up and loft. L 3 Upon Upon my going into the church, I entertained myfelf with the digging of a grave; and faw in every shovel-full of it that was thrown up, the fragment of a bone or skull intermixt with a kind of fresh mouldering earth, that fome time or other had a place in the compofition of an human body. Upon this I began to confider with myfelf, what innumerable multitudes of people lay confused together under the pavement of that ancient cathedral; how men and women, friends and enemies, priests and soldiers, monks and prebendaries, were crumbled amongst one another, and blended together in the fame common maís; how beauty, ftrength, and youth, with old age, weakness, and deformity, lay undistinguished in the fame promifcuous heap of matter. After having thus furveyed this great magazine of mortality, as it were in the lump, I examined it more particularly by the accounts which I found on feveral of the monuments which are raised in every quarter of that ancient fabric, Some of them were covered with fuch extravagant epitaphs, that if it were poffible for the dead person to be acquainted with them, he would blush at the praifes which his friends have bestowed upon him, There are others fo exceffively modeft, that they deliver the character of the perfon departed in Greek or Hebrew, and by that means are not understood once in a twelve-month. In the poetical quarter, I found there were poets who had no monuments, and monuments which had no poets, I obferved obferved indeed that the prefent war had filled the church with many of these uninhabited monuments, which had been erected to the memory of perfons whofe bodies were perhaps buried in the plains of Blenheim, or in the bofom of the ocean. I could not but be very much delighted with feveral modern epitaphs, which are written with great elegance of expreffion and justness of thought, and therefore do honour to the living as well as the dead. As a foreigner is very apt to conceive an idea of the ignorance or politenefs of a nation from the turn of their public monuments and infcriptions, they should be fubmitted to the perufal of men of learning and genius before they are put in execution. Sir Cloudefly Shovel's monument has very often. given me great offence. Inftead of the brave rough English admiral, which was the diftinguishing character of that plain gallant man, he is reprefented on his tomb by the figure of a beau, dreffed in a long periwig, and repofing himself upon velvet cushions under a canopy ftate. The infcription is anfwerable to the monument; for instead of celebrating the many remarkable actions he had performed in the fervice of his country, it acquaints us only with the manner of his death, in which it was impoffible for him to reap any honour. The Dutch, whom we are apt to defpife for want of genius, fhew an infinitely greater tafte of antiquity and politenefs in their buildings and works of this na L.4 of ture, ture, than what we meet with in thofe of our own country. The monuments of their admirals, which have been erected at the public expence, reprefent them like themselves, and are adorned with roftral crowns and naval ornaments, with beautiful feftoons of fea - weed, fhells, and coral. But to return to our fubject. I have left the repofitory of our English kings for the contemplation of another day, when I fhall find my mind difpofed for fo ferious an amusement. I know that entertainments of this nature are apt to raise dark and difmal thoughts in timorous minds, and gloomy imaginations; but for my own part, though I am always ferious, I do not know what it is to be melancholy; and can therefore take a view of nature in her deep and folemn fcenes, with the fame pleasure as in her moft gay and delightful ones. By this means I can improve myself with those objects, which others confider with terror. When I look' upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies in me; when I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate defire goes out; when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tombftone, my heart melts with compaffion; when I fee the tomb of the parents themfelves, I confider the vanity of grieving for thofe whom we muft quickly follow. When I fee kings lying by those who depofed them, when I confider rival wits placed fide by fide, or the holy men that divided the world with their contefts and difputes, difputes, I reflect with forrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind. When I read the several dates of the tombs, of fome that died yesterday, and some fix hundred years ago, I confider that great day when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together. C*. By ADDISON, dated it is thought from Chelsea. See final Note to N° 7, on ADDISON's fignatures C, L, I, O; and N° 221, on Cabaliftical Letters, &c; Note. *Thefe are to certify, that Eliz. Milfris, born in Nightingale Lane, in the parish of St. John, Wapping, was under the misfortune of blindnefs, that her fight was defpaired of, till we recommended her to Sir Wm. Read, her Majesty's principal Oculift in Durham Yard, and by his directions to the Lady Read, who, as by him inftructed to cure all curable diftempers incident to the eyes, has by the use of proper medicines, reftored her to fight. Attefted by us, March 17, 1710-11. Thomas Cooper, Curate of St. John, Wapping. Ja. Jackfon, Conftable. SPECT. in folio. See TAT. with Notes, N° 224, et paffim. Juft publifhed, The 6th Ed. of BAT upon BAT, A Poem. On the parts, patience and pains of Barth. Kempfter, Clerk, Poet, Cutler of Holy Rood Parish in Southampton. By a Perfon of Quality. With a Vifion, wherein is defcribed BAT's perfon and ingenuity. Alfo an Account of the ancient and prefent State of Southampton by the fame Author. Dedicated to the Gentry of Hampshire, &c. SPECTATOR in folio, N° 27. |