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with the Academy was a Gymnasium and a garden, which was adorned 

 with delig^htful covered walks, and refreshed by the waters of the 

 Cephisus, wliicli flowed under the shade of the plane and various other 

 trees, through its western borders. At the entrance and williin the 

 area of the garden were temples, altars, and statues of the gods. 



The bodies of the Athenians, who had fallen in bottle, were collected 

 by their countrymen, and, after they were consumed on the funeral pile, 

 their hones were carried to Athens ; there they were exposed, in 

 cypress coffins, under a large tent, for three days, that the relations 

 might perform those libations, which affection and religion enjoined ; 

 then they were placed on as many cars as there were tribes, and the 

 procession proceeded slowly through the city to the Ceramicus, where 

 funeral games were exhibited, and an orator, publicly appointed for the 

 occasion, pronounced an eulogium. 



Even the Turks, who are so opposed to the cultivation of the fine 

 arts, embellish their grave-yards Avitli evergreens. With them it is a 

 religious duty to plant trees around the graves of their kindred, and 

 the burying ground of Scutari is one of the most interesting objects in 

 the environs of Constantinople. Situated in the rear of the town and 

 extending along the declivity of the Asiatic shore, towards tlie sea of 

 Marmora, it presents a vast forest of majestic trees ; and thither the 

 inhabitants of the imperial city generally resort, during the sultry 

 months of summer, to enjoy the cool breezes which descend from the 

 Euxine, or are wailed over the waves of the Propontis. Throughout 

 Italy, France, and England, there are many cemeteries which are 

 ornamented with forest trees and flowering shrubs. Pere La Chaise, 

 in the environs of Paris, has been admired and celebrated by every 

 traveller who has visited that beautiful garden of the dead. 



In Liverpool a similar burying-ground was completed three years 

 since, and a meeting has recently been held in London for forming one 

 in the vicinity of that city, of a size and on a scale of magnificence 

 which shall quadrate with the wealth and vast extent of the mighty 

 capital of a great nation. Within the central area are to be exact 

 models of the superb temples, triumphal arches, columns, and public 

 monuments of Greece and Rome, as receptacles, or memorials of the 

 departed worthies of the empire. 



The establishment of rural cemeteries similar to that of Pere La 

 Chaise, has often been the subject of conversation in this country, and 

 frequently adverted to by the writers in our scientific and literary pub- 

 lications. Bnt a few years since, a meeting was held in Boston, by 

 many of its most respectable citizens, for the purpose of maturing a 

 plan and forming such an establishment in the environs of the city. 

 No one can be indifferent to a subject of such deep and universal inter- 

 est. In whatever point of view it is considered, who is there that does 

 not perceive numerous and powerful inducements for aiding in its 

 accomplishment? How consoling and pleasing is the thought that our 

 memories shall be cherished sfter death ; and that the spot, where our 

 ashes repose, shall be often visited by dear and constant friends ; that 

 they will there linger to call up the soothing yet melancholy reminis- 

 cences of by gone times ; that the sod, which covers us, will be kept 

 ever verdant; that a magnificent forest will be reared to overshadow 

 our graves, by those truly kind hands which performed the last sad 

 office of affection ; that flowers will fringe the pathways, leading to 



