08 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



edifice, that they might have the benefit of aves and paters, 

 for such was the fond hope that many entertained. There 

 was something very affecting in the sight of these simple 

 mounds, rising in the midst of a wild country, with a few 

 houses clustering near, and, far as the eye could reach, a 

 dense forest clothing both hill and dale. Men had not 

 learned to minister to the vanity of the living by splendid 

 monumental eulogiums, neither did they raise aught upon 

 their graves, excepting a small mound of earth, or, perhaps, 

 a simple stone, to distinguish the resting-place of the thane 

 or of his family. Yet the practice of interring in separate 

 graves indicated an improving condition of society, more 

 especially as the persons who lay beside the church had 

 been humble while living, working-men, who wrought in 

 the fields, and whose wives and children were employed 

 upon the farm. In former times, monuments, even of the 

 plainest description, such as an unhewn stone or a mound 

 of earth, rather indicated a warrior's resting-place than the 

 low couch of one who had faithfully served his Maker in 



