1828.] Men and Candles. 277 



ters of wheat might be raised on land at present cumbered with tomb- 

 stones. If the relatives and friends of the departed would fain preserve 

 some relict of the dead, they might empty the snuffers into rings and 

 lockets : there would be an attractive and poetic sensibility in this. The 

 custom would also present a continual moral a memento mori would ever, 

 at least at candlelight, be with us. One might speculate whether it was 

 a second or third cousin on the table, and moralize accordingly. In 

 small villages, which would doubtless burn their own population, the 

 genealogy of every candle might be accurately retained, and the taper 

 spoken of with becoming respect. Thus, when a light was required, 

 the servant might be directed to " set up another Mr. Jones/' or 

 " put one of Mr. Tomkins on the table \" And can it be thought that 

 these worthy personages, whilst they diffused light, would not also give 

 birth to those serious reflections so fervently advocated by all holy men ? 

 Certainly, they must. On the general adoption of the system, that 

 famous line 



" Out, brief CANDLE !"* 



will have a pointed warning, especially if addressed to a short, bulky 

 liver. 



We trust the public will think well of this proposition that they will 

 bring to its consideration a liberal and philosophic mind. After all, we 

 think a candlestick, whether of brass or silver, is a more decent tempo- 

 rary abode than five feet of wet earth. To be sure, some alteration 

 must be made in the Burial Service ; but we have bishops all 

 all sufficient for the task. For ourselves, we enter most heartily into 

 the measure. We contemplate with singular complacency the possibility 

 of our mortal remnant giving light to a knot of good fellows ; to have 

 the air about us impregnated with the spirit of wit and humour escaping 

 from the talkers ; to bend our flame as it were into a courteous recogni- 

 tion towards a late companion, who should solicit us with his Havannah : 

 or, still better, to witness the studious hours of a friend, whose hand has 

 scarcely ceased throbbing from our last grasp; to be promoted to his table, 

 to burn over the volume perhaps a legacy from ourselves ; to witness 

 his thoughtful eyes bent steadfastly upon the page, conning more than 

 once some passage marked by the thumb-nail or the pencil of the dead. 

 Surely, this is to cheat the worms for something ! Is the reader yet 

 converted to the " new light ?" If not, we leave him to the melancholy 

 brightness of the lackered coffin-plate, and", as the deep-thoughted 

 " Elia" has it, to the " angel" and " well- wrought cramp-irons." We 

 think Falstaff would have been of our faith. How the old knight would 

 have blazed over <c a sack posset !" But he had too much fat in him 

 to be made into any one candle. Like Romeo, he should have been 

 " cut into little stars/' and used as flambeaux " between tavern and 

 tavern/' 



* In a literal translation of Macbeth into French, the line is thus happily rendered :- 

 " Sortez, courte chandelle /" 



