Architecture in the United States. 271 
thoughts to another world, not to make us more in love with this one 
and with ourselves. Let us then build over our deceased friends, 
monuments lasting and neat, rather than showy and expensive: let 
us keep the sod around well shorn and clean: let the tree that waves 
over it be trimmed and neat; let the spot bear witness to our 
frequent visits; and we honor the dead more than if we gave them 
a Mausoleum, or inclosed them in prophyry or gold; while at the 
same time we benefit the living. 
Nothing is more difficult than to write a good monumental inscrip- 
tion: yet there is no kind of writing for the public more universally 
tried. I always reverence the language of sorrow and _ affection, 
whatever it may be, and shall treat it mildly, yet I wish to be plain. 
Such inscriptions should always be brief and simple, yet expressive. 
What is beyond mere name and date, is meant to be the language 
of deep grief or warm affection, or of both. The language of 
such passions is always brief, yet touching and powerful. When 
therefore I see an inscription very long, or labored, with swelling 
words and sentences neatly rounded, I think that the writer would 
have us admire himself rather than the dead, and turn disgusted 
away. How well the ancients understood this subject. The fol- 
lowing is an inscription from a monument found at Delos: I premise 
that the marble represents two female figures, one seated, the other 
facing her and with arms crossed on the breast : both are of exquisite 
sculpture : beneath is in Greek letters, os 
AGATHOCLEA 
DAUGHTER OF ANTIPATER 
THOU GOOD MEMBER OF THE SACRED ciTY. 
AREWELL. ; ranace 
The inscriptions on the tombs of the ancient Romans were equally 
brief and equally beautiful. 
To THE cops Manes.* 
THe FATHER 
HAS ERECTED THIS 
TO HIS EXCELLENT SON 
Ser. VALERIUS 
SEvERIANUS 
HAS ERECTED THIS 
To HIS MUCH LOVED Son | 
M 
He urvep XI Ys. 7Ms. XI Ds. He ttvep XL Ys. 
* This word had various applications among the ancients. When used on ap 
tombs it seemed to have meant a kind of genii, who were supposed to take charge 
the body at birth, and to watch it after death: he who violated the tomb offered 
insult to the Manes. ‘ : fe 
