ng the presence of the invisible Deity. And though it be
true that the most admirable of them must fall far short of perfection,
and that the majority of those whose work is commemorated upon their
tomb-stones must have been persons in whom good and evil were intermixed
in various proportions and stood in various degrees of opposition to
each other, yet the Reader will remember what has been said before upon
that medium of love, sorrow and admiration, through which a departed
friend is viewed; how it softens down or removes these harshnesses and
contradictions, which moreover must be supposed never to have been
grievous: for there can be no true love but between the good; and no
epitaph ought to be written upon a bad man, except for a warning.

The purpose of the remarks given in the last Essay was chiefly to assist
the Reader in separating truth and sincerity from falsehood and
affectation; presuming that if the unction of a devout heart be wanting
everything else is of no avail. It was shewn that a current of just
thought and feeling may flow under a surface of illustrative imagery so
impure as to produce an effect the opposite of that which was intended.
Yet, though this fault may be carried to an intolerable _degree_, the
Reader will have gathered that in our estimation it is not _in kind_ the
most offensive and injurious. We have contrasted it in its excess with
instances where the genuine current or vein was wholly wanting; where
the thoughts and feelings had no vital union, but were artificially
connected, or formally accumulated, in a manner that would imply
discontinuity and feebleness of mind upon any occasion, but still more
reprehensible here!

I will proceed to give milder examples not in this last kind but in the
former; namely of failure from various causes where the ground-work is
good.

Take holy earth! all that my soul holds dear:
Take that best gift which Heaven so lately gave:
To Bristol's fount I bore with trembling care,
Her faded form. She bow'd to taste the wave--
And died. Does youth, does beauty read the line?
Does sympathetic fear their breasts alarm?
Speak, dead Maria! breathe a strain divine;
Even from the grave thou shalt have power to charm.
Bid them in duty's sphere as meekly move:
And if so fair, from vanity as free,
As firm in friendship, and as fond in love;
Tell them, tho 'tis an awful thing to die,
('Twas e'en to thee) yet, th