Mottoes for Monuments, or Epitaphs selected for Study or Application.
By F. and 31. A. Pallieer. (Murray.)—A book of this kind ought to be good all through, to contain nothing but what is very fine and perfectly appropriate. Now, it is not too much to say that one-half of this volume is rubbish, or what we should call rubbish, if it were not for its good intentions ; and that of the remaining half, a very considerable portion is quite inappropriate,—all the verses which describe the feelings of the dying are so. Pope, for instance, is twice quoted, and one of the quotations is quite out of place. How could the lines, "The world recedes! it disappears!
Heaven opens on my eyes! my ears
With sounds seraphic ring!
Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly! 0 grave, where is thy victory ? 0 death, where is thy sting?"
be with any propriety engraved on a tomb ? Of Pope's really famous epitaph there is no mention ; one well-known one, on the son of Secretary Craggs, is given in this very feeble form :- " A duteous son lies buried here; Who from a widowed mother's eye Ne'er caused to flow one sorrowing tear, Till she beheld him droop and die."
One of the prettiest things in the book is from Miss Proctor's poem, and this is scarcely fitted for an epitaph, though part of it might be easily altered into one :- "I am rising and not setting, This is not night, but day, Not in darkness, but in sunshine, Like a star I fade away.
And friends, dear friends, when It shall be That this low breath is gone from me, And round my bier ye come to weep, Let one, most loving of you all, Say, 'Not a tear o'er her must fall, He giveth His beloved sleep.' "
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