death and religion may or
may not be connected in the general sentiment; if within or near the
places of worship, they certainly are so connected. In the cemeteries of
Persia, the ashes of the dead are ranged in niches of the walls: in
Egypt we have the most striking example of affection to the body, shown
in the extraordinary care to preserve it; while some half-civilized
people seem to be satisfied with putting their dead out of sight, by
summarily sinking them in water, or hiding them in the sand; and the
Caffres throw their dead to the hyenas,--impelled to this, however, not
so much by disregard of the dead, as by a superstitious fear of death
taking place in their habitations, which causes them to remove the
dying, and expose them in this state to beasts of prey. The burial of
the dead by the road-side by some of the ancients, seems to have brought
death into the closest relation with life; and when the place chosen is
taken in connexion with the inscriptions on the tombs,--words addressed
to the wayfarer as from him who lies within,--from the pilgrim now at
rest to the pilgrim still on his way, they give plain indications of the
views of death and life entertained by those who placed them.

Much may be learned from the monumental inscriptions of all nations. The
first epitaph is supposed to be traced back to the year of the world
2700, when the scholars of Linus, the Theban poet, bewailed their master
in verses which were inscribed upon his tomb. From that day to this,
wherever there have been letters, there have been epitaphs; and, where
letters have been wanting, there have been symbols. Mysterious symbolic
arrangements are traced in the monumental mounds in the interior of the
American continent, where a race of whom we know nothing else flourished
before the Red man opened his eyes upon the light. One common rule,
drawn from a universal sentiment, has presided at the framing of all
epitaphs for some thousands of years. "De mortuis nil nisi bonum" is the
universal agreement of mourners.[G] It follows that epitaphs must
everywhere indicate what is there considered good.

The observer must give his attention to this. Among a people "whose
merchants are princes," the praise of the departed will be in a
different strain from that which will be found among a warlike nation,
or a community of agriculturists. Here one may find monumental homage to
public spirit, in the form of active citizenship; there to domestic
v