66 



especially in great cities, is a novel presumption, indecent, sordid, and 

 very prejudicial to health ; it was not done amonor the Christians in the 

 primitive ages ; " was forbidden by the Emperors Gratian, Valentian, 

 and Theodosiiis, and never sanctioned until the time of Gregory the 

 Great. The Eastern Christians do not now inter the dead within their 

 churches. During the age of the patriarchs, groves were se'ected as 

 places of sepulture. When Sartih died, Abraham purchased "the field 

 of Ephron, in Machpelah, with .ill the trees that were therein and the 

 borders round about, as a burying place," and there he buried his wife ; 

 " and there they buried Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah, and Leah " ; and 

 when Jacob had l)Iessed 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 Jabeshgilead removed the bodies of Saul 

 and his sons from the wall of Bcthshan and " buried them under a tree." 

 Moses was buried in " a valley in tlie land of Moab " ; Joseph in " a par- 

 cel of ground in Shechem" ; Elcazer, the son of Aaron "in a hill that 

 pertained to Phinehas," and Manassah with Amon " 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 Propertius indicates the 

 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 Meniphis were beyond the lake 

 Acherusia, from whence the Grecian mythologists derived their fabu- 

 lous accounts of the Elysian Fields. There it was supposed the souls 

 of the virtuous and illustrious 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 Aramathean, 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, or 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 sculp- 

 tured sarcophagi and magnificent tombs, reared by the once polished 

 nations of Asia Minor are still to be seen in the vicinity of the numer- 

 ous ruined cities on the deserted coast of Karamania. 



The Athenians allowed no burials within the city. The illustrious 

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

 thought deserving of the most distinguished honors, were buried in the 

 Ceran)icus, — an extensive public cemetery on the road to Thria. 

 Tombs and statues were erected to their memory, on which were re- 

 counted their praises and exploits ; and to render them familiar 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 jrrounds were embellished with trees and made a 

 pui)lic promenade. Within the Ceramicus was the Academy where 

 Plato and the great men wJio followed him met their disciples and held 

 assemblies for philosophical conference and instruction. Connected 



