HISTORICAL SKETCH. 71 



never sanctioned until the lime of Gregory the Great.' The Eastern 

 Christians do not now inter their dead within their churches. 



•' During the age of the patriarchs, graves were selected as places of 

 sepulchre. When Sarah died, Abraham purchased ' the Field of Ephron, 

 in Machpelah, with all the trees that were therein and the borders round 

 about, as a burying place,' and there he buried his wife ; ' and there they 

 buried Abraliara, Isaac, Rebekah, and Leah;' and when Jacob had blessed 

 his sons,' he said unto them, ' I am to be gathered unto my people : bury 

 me with my fathers, in the Cave, that is in the Field of Ephron.' Deborah 

 * was buried beneath Bethel, under an oak;' and the valiant men of Jabesh 

 Gilead, removed the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Bethshari 

 and ' buried them under a tree,' Moses was buried in ' a valley in the 

 land of Moab ;' Joseph in ' a parcel of ground in Shechem;' Eleazer, the 

 son of Aaron, ' in the garden of Uzza.' 



" The planting of Rose Trees upon graves is an ancient custom ; Anac- 

 reon says, that ' it protects the dead ;' and Proper tius indicates Ihe usage 

 of burying amidst roses. 



" Plato sanctioned the planting of trees over sepulchres, and the tomb of 

 Ariadne was in the Arethusian Grove of Crete. The Catacombs of Thebes 

 were excavated in the gorges of the forest-clad hills on the opposite bank 

 of the Nile, and those of Memphis were beyond the lake Acherusia, from 

 whence the Grecian mylhologists derived their fabulous accounts of the 

 Elysian Fields. There it was supposed the souls of the virtuous and_illus- 

 trious retired after death, and roamed through bowers, forever green, and 

 over meadows spangled with flowers, and refreshed by perennial streams. 

 In the mountains near Jerusalem, were located the tombs of the opulent 

 Israelites ; and in a garden, near the base of Calvary, had Joseph, the 

 Admathean, prepared that memorable sepulchre, in which was laid the 

 crucified Messiah, The Greeks and Romans often selected the secluded 

 recesses of wooded heights and vales, as favorite places of interment, on 

 the borders of the great public highways, where elegant monuments were 

 erected, and surrounded with cypress and other ever verdant trees. Many 

 of the richly sculptured sarcophagi and magnificent tombs, reared by the 

 once polished nations of Asia Minor, are still to be seen in the vicinity 

 of the numerous ruined cities on the deserted coast of Karamonia. 



" The Athenians allowed no burials within the city. The illustrious 

 men who had either died in the service of their country, or were thought 

 deserving of the most distinguished honors, were buried in the Ceramicus — 

 an extensive public Cemetery on the road to Thria. Tombs and statues 

 were erected to their memory, on which were recorded their exploits ; 

 and to render these famihar to all, to animate every citizen to a love 

 of virtue and of glory, and to excite in youthful minds an ardent desire 

 of imitating those celebrated worthies, the spacious grounds were embel- 



