1899.] Bight Hon. Sir M. E. Grant Duff on Epitaphs. 15 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, January 27, 1899. 



Sib James Crichton-Browne, M.D. LL.D. F.R.S., Treasurer 

 and Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The Right Hon. Sir Mountstuart E. Grant Duff, G.C.S.I. F.R.S. 



Epitaphs. 



When we remember that nearly all churches and churchyards contain 

 a great variety of epitaphs and that they were in use long before 

 churches or churchyards existed, we may well feel some surprise that 

 so extensive a department of literature has received such scant 

 attention from competent critics. It is true that there are many 

 collections of epitaphs, but the most uncritical spirit has almost 

 always guided those who have collected them. Now and then a great 

 writer has produced an essay on the subject. Samuel Johnson, for 

 instance, contributed one to the ' Gentleman's Magazine,' which will 

 be found in his collected works ; but it is far indeed from being one 

 of its author's more felicitous compositions, and is, sooth to say, a 

 singularly poor piece of work, only redeemed from insignificance by 

 the praise which it gives to the memorable epitaph of Zosiine, then 

 less known, I presume, than it is now : — 



Zosime, ne'er save in her flesh a slave, 



E'en for her flesh finds freedom in the grave. 



Wordsworth, too, wrote a paper upon epitaphs in the ' Friend,' 

 but it is a very unsatisfying performance. The philosophical and 

 critical part of it, indeed, is exceedingly jejune, although when the 

 author forgets that he is a philosopher, and remembers only that he 

 is a poet, he rises very high. The following is surely a noble 

 paragraph : — 



" A.s in sailing upon the orb of this planet, a voyage towards the 

 regions where the sun sets, conducts gradually to the quarter where 

 we have been accustomed to behold it come forth at its rising ; and in 

 like manner a voyage towards the East, the birth-place in our imagina- 

 tion of the morning, leads finally to the quarter where the sun is last 

 seen when he departs from our eyes ; so the contemplative soul, 

 travelling in the direction of mortality, advances to the country of 

 everlasting life ; and, in like manner, may she continue to explore 

 those cheerful tracts, till she is brought back, for her advantage and 

 benefit, to the land of transitory things — of sorrow and of tears." 



