Architecture in the United States. 269 
cemetery is just without the suburbs, in a retired and quiet spot, and at 
a distance from great public roads: itshould border on the more genteel 
part of the town, that the solemnity of the place may not be disturbed by 
unpleasant sights and sounds; and, above all, it should be in a part not 
liable to be encroached upon in the greater enlargement of the town. 
The lapse of a few years sees our waste places become villages, our 
villages towns, our towns cities, and our cities double and treble their 
extent. Should the burying ground then be in a neighborhood de- 
sirable for building, it will soon be surrounded, checked imits increase, 
filled and abandoned: in a few generations the reverence-for it will 
be lost, and bones laid in the earth in hopes of a peaceful rest, will 
be thrown out on the world to be subject to vulgar insult and derision. 
No one can think without pain of this in regard-to himself or his 
friends; and we should avoid it, as I have said, by seeking for 
cemeteries, spots least exposed to such things. eee 
There let us bury our dead without ostentation or parade. . I have 
seen so many graves just torn open by hostile pillage, or curiosity, or 
avarice, that I exceedingly dislike any thing in a grave that can tempt 
the cupidity of man. I should reprobate even a leaden coffin and 
almost the common plate used to designate the name and age. A 
vault may please the living, but is apt to-be an evil to the dead. To 
me certainly it would be distressing, to think that the remains of a 
dear friend were in an exposed and tempting situation, to be proba- 
bly ina few ages torn from thence, and scattered wantonly on the 
world. Far better would it be to have them in the silent earth, 
where no one would care to search for them; there to repose and 
mingle quietly ‘dust with dust,” till called to a brighter and happier 
state. This is a security which even the pyramids have: failed to 
procure. cmtas Oe ae 
It would be an intcresting employment to analyze the feelings that 
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