man will
choose for his final and lasting companion in the languor of age, in the
quiet of privacy, when he departs weary and disgusted from the
ostentatious, the volatile, and the vain. Of such a character, which the
dull overlook, and the gay despise, it was fit that the value should be
made known, and the dignity established. Domestick virtue, as it is
exerted without great occasions, or conspicuous consequences, in an even
unnoted tenour, required the genius of Pope to display it in such a
manner as might attract regard, and enforce reverence. Who can forbear
to lament that this amiable woman has no name in the verses?

If the particular lines of this inscription be examined, it will appear
less faulty than the rest. There is scarcely one line taken from
commonplaces, unless it be that in which _only virtue_ is said to be our
own. I once heard a Jady of great beauty and excellence object to the
fourth line, that it contained an unnatural and incredible panegyrick.
Of this let the ladies judge.

VII.

_On the monument of the honourable_ ROBERT DIGBY, _and of his sister
MARY, erected by their father the lord_ DIGBY, _in the church of
Skerborne, in Dorsetshire, 1727._

Go! fair example of untainted youth,
Of modest wisdom, and pacific truth:
Compos'd in sufferings, and in joy sedate,
Good without noise, without pretension great.
Just of thy word, in ev'ry thought sincere,
Who knew no wish but what the world might hear:
Of softest manners, unaffected mind,
Lover of peace, and friend of human kind:
Go, live! for heav'n's eternal year is thine;
Go, and exalt thy mortal to divine.
And thou, blest maid! attendant on his doom,
Pensive hast follow'd to the silent tomb,
Steer'd the same course to the same quiet shore,
Not parted long, and now to part no more!
Go, then, where only bliss sincere is known!
Go, where to love and to enjoy are one!
Yet take these tears, mortality's relief,
And, till we share your joys, forgive our grief:
These little rites, a stone, a verse receive,
'Tis all a father, all a friend can give!

This epitaph contains of the brother only a general indiscriminate
character, and of the sister tells nothing but that she died. The
difficulty in writing epitaphs is to give a particular and appropriate
praise. This, however, is not always to be performed, whatever be the
dilige