42 



It is interesting to examine the causes of this great change in 

 public sentiment and manners ; — they are worthy the consid- 

 eration of the enlightened. 



The first reverses of France, whose armies had always been 

 victorious for a period of twenty-six years, produced, in 1815, a 

 universal gloom. During the same year, the death of the Abbe 

 Delille, overwhelmed the friends of literature with grief, and the 

 death of Gretry was a subject of mourning among the amateurs 

 of music ; an inmiense concourse attended their obsequies. 

 During periods of calamity we give ourselves up to serious reflec- 

 tions, and this multitude, which had thronged the Cemetery of 

 Pere La Chaise, appreciated the beauty of the position, the diver- 

 sity of the grounds, and were astonished at the pleasant sensa- 

 tions vvliich were produced, even in the midst of tombs. At this 

 time all sepulchres were prohibited in churches; the doors of the 

 Pantheon, which had been long closed to illustrious men, were 

 then immediately shut against the grand dignitaries of a govern- 

 ment which no longer existed, and it became necessary to con- 

 found their remains with those of the people in the dust of Pere 

 La Chaise. Military chieftains, who were known to all Europe, 

 from having commanded her armies, there found the term of their 

 glory, but not of their renown ; the companions of their victories 

 feared not to continue their homage in the night of death ; those, 

 who were emulous of their fame, were deposited by their side, 

 and there found there last place of rest; foreigners, looking upon 

 their tombs, considered the characters of those distinguished 

 warriors, whose valor had so often disturbed their repose ; French- 

 men recollected those victories, the evanescent dream of which, 

 still flattered their pride. At this period all perpetual sepulchres 

 were forbidden in the other burial-places of Paris, and the Ceme- 

 tery of Pere La Chaise, consequently became the place of rendez- 

 vous for all the great and opulent in Paris ; for the illustrious in 

 letters, the sciences and the arts ; for those who were successful 

 in commerce, and the numerous branches of national industry ; 

 for persons eminent from their public stations, and for men dis- 

 tinguished in political events. The spoils of the dead were here 

 collected, families were re-united, all opinions were confounded, 

 and strangers mingled their ashes with those of the inhabitants 

 of Paris. Each signalized his piety, by monuments proportioned 

 to his pecuniary means, rather than the merit of the deceased 

 relative. No one was willing to be considered wanting in grati- 

 tude, but rather that he possessed an elevated soul. Universal 

 admiration was the appendage of good hearts, whose sensibility 

 ceased not to offer in secret a sincere homage to their friends, in 

 shedding tears upon their dearly-cherished remains, by embellish- 

 ing their tombs, and in crowning them with wreaths of flowers : 

 the multitude attempted to imitate them, by cultivating plants on 

 the graves of their relatives, and by bringing garlands from a dis- 



