uld do nothing. This is one of the most odious of faults; because it
shocks the moral sense, and is worse in a sepulchral inscription,
precisely in the same degree as that mode of composition calls for
sincerity more urgently than any other. And indeed where the internal
evidence proves that the writer was moved, in other words where this
charm of sincerity lurks in the language of a tomb-stone and secretly
pervades it, there are no errors in style or manner for which it will
not be, in some degree, a recompence; but without habits of reflection a
test of this inward simplicity cannot be come at; and as I have said, I
am now writing with a hope to assist the well-disposed to attain it.

Let us take an instance where no one can be at a loss. The following
lines are said to have been written by the illustrious Marquis of
Montrose with the point of his sword, upon being informed of the death
of his master, Charles I.:

Great, good, and just, could I but rate
My griefs, and thy so rigid fate;
I'd weep the world to such a strain,
As it should deluge once again.
But since thy loud-tongued blood demands supplies,
More from Briareus' hands than Argus' eyes,
I'll sing thy obsequies with trumpets' sounds
And write thy epitaph with blood and wounds.

These funereal verses would certainly be wholly out of their place upon
a tomb-stone; but who can doubt that the writer was transported to the
height of the occasion? that he was moved as it became an heroic
soldier, holding those principles and opinions, to be moved? His soul
labours;--the most tremendous event in the history of the
planet--namely, the deluge, is brought before his imagination by the
physical image of tears,--a connection awful from its very remoteness
and from the slender band that unites the ideas:--it passes into the
region of fable likewise; for all modes of existence that forward his
purpose are to be pressed into the service. The whole is instinct with
spirit, and every word has its separate life; like the chariot of the
Messiah, and the wheels of that chariot, as they appeared to the
imagination of Milton aided by that of the prophet Ezekiel. It had power
to move of itself, but was conveyed by cherubs.

--with stars their bodies all
And wings were set with eyes, with eyes the wheels
Of beryl, and careering fires between.

Compare with the above verses of Montrose the following epitaph upon Sir