8* 



these persons had been more extenuated at the time 

 Of their death. 



"Here the people of Paler mo pay daily visits to their 

 deceased friends, and recal with pleasure and regret 

 the scenes of the past life : here they familiarize them, 

 selves with their future state, and choose the company 

 they would wish to keep in the other world. It is a 

 common thing to make choice of their nich, and to try 

 if their body iits it, that no alterations may be neces- 

 sary after they are dead ; and sometimes by way of 

 voluntary penance, they stand for hours in these 

 niches^ 



u The bodies of the princes and first nobility are 

 lodged in handsome chests or trunks, some of them 

 richly adorned : these are not in the shape of coffins, 

 but all of one width,and about a foot and a half, or two 

 feet deep. The keys are kept by the nearest rela- 

 tions of the family, who sometimes come and drop a 

 tear over their departed friends. 



u These visits must prove admirable lessons of humi- 

 lity ; and they are not such objects of horror as one 

 would imagine: they are said, even for ages after 

 death, to retain a strong likeness of what they were 

 when alive: so that, as soon as you have conquered 

 the first feelings excited by these venerable figures, 

 yon only consider this as a vast gallery of original 

 portraits, drawn after the, life, by the justest and 

 most unprejudiced hand, It must be owned, that the 

 colours are rather faded ; and the pencil does not ap- 

 pear to have been the most flattering in the world z 

 but no matter ; it is the pencil of truth, and not of 

 a mercenary, who only wants to please. 



" It might also be made of very considerable use to 

 society :. these dumb orators could give the most pa- 

 thetic lectures upon pride and vanity. Whenever a 

 fellow began to strut, or to affect the haughty, super- 

 cilious air, he should be sent to converse with his 

 friends in the gallery : and if their arguments did not 

 bring him to a proper way of thinking, I would give 

 fcini up as incorrigible.' * 



