43 



tance to ornament them. To devote a connexion to oblivion was 

 deemed a disgrace. Strangers, who behehl this revolution in the 

 customs and manners of the Parisians, were anxious to verify it 

 by visitmg the Cemetery of Pere La Chaise. They were filled 

 with admiration to find in a burial-place, whatever there was in 

 nature which could give satisfaction to the mind, and everything 

 in tlie arts which could gratify a refined taste, as well as lessons 

 of the most exalted philosophy, and of the soundest morals. All 

 extolled it as a phenomenon : it acquired, in a few years, an Eu- 

 ropean celebrity, which would have been still farther extended, if 

 It had been known what a picture of national manners was there 

 presented, and what impressive admonitions for the human heart 

 were there inculcated. 



The magnificent sites of this inclosure have induced the opu- 

 lent to recall the arts for the embellishment of the final recepta- 

 cles of their relatives. Geriiis was no longer restrained to con- 

 tract his thoughts within the narrow limits of a church, where he 

 was only permitted to ornament one of its sides with a m'ausoleum. 

 Here he could give perfection to a monument, in which all the 

 parts were admirable in style, proportion, ornament, and beauty. 

 Each artist could choose the most favorable position for the execu- 

 tion of his design ; and happy is the architect or sculptor who is 

 enabled to study well his plan before putting it in execution ; and 

 not less fortunate is he, if not opposed by false taste or the parsi^ 

 mony of those who require his services. 



In passing over these grounds, where repose so many French- 

 men in the long sleep of death, it is surprising to beliold every 

 form of tomb, used among all the nations of the earth, from the 

 pyramid reared by Egyptian pride, to announce in reality the 

 profound humility of the princes who caused them to be con- 

 structed, because they could not occupy, in the immense pile bm 

 a small and gloomy cell, to the basket of flowers under which the 

 Turk and the Persian await the moment of beino- awakened to 

 everlasting life. There are to be seen, near each other the 

 Egyptian sarcophagus, decorated with onllons, the stele of the 

 Greeks^ their cenotaphs and their monuments,— the antique bourn 

 ot the Romans, and their mausoleums re-produced upon the soil of 

 France,— the columbariums of the ancients, in the mortuary 

 chapels and tombs,— the Greek orders near the architecture of the 

 Arabs,— the leaves of the Acanthus and the Doric triglyphs not 

 far from wreaths of natural foliage,— the cinerary urn,°the hide- 

 ous form of the coffin, the sable wing of the Egyptians reversed 

 flambeaux, the bird of death, heads of contrhion, crosses of every 

 form, crowns of oak and myrtle, rose-buds, the pelican nourish- 

 ing her young with her own blood, the humble grave-stone at the 

 base of the superb mausoleum, roughly hammered granite near 

 the best polished marble, the image of an illustrious man near the 

 figure of an unknown person, marble sparkling upon more than a 



