ture with which they were put to death, as the ungula, or two-pronged claw, to tear the flesh. To those interested in such antiquities, this book will be a rich treat; and, earnestly commending it for perusal, we pass to add a few remarks on more modern cemeteries.

Formerly the dead were interred in the church yard, or beneath the church itself. In the crowded city, the inconvenience and noisomeness of this practice were sorely felt, and that it was so long tolerated is wonderful even with allowance for the power of long established custom, and we may say of superstition. Paris, so far as we are informed, was the first to break away from these fetters and set the example of a rural cemetery without the city enclosure, adorned with walks and alleys and avenues, and trees and shrubs and flowers, to throw some cheerfulness and attraction around man's last asylum. In 1804 the Père La Chaise, so called from a reverend father of the Jesuits who once owned the tract in part, was purchased by the city authorities for a burying place. The extent of the purchase was fiftytwo acres, and lies on the east quarter of the city. The ground is beautifully diversified in surface, having one commanding hill. The laying out of the grounds was committed to M. Brongniart, architect, who executed the work in a manner, considering the novelty of the enterprise, worthy of all praise. The cemetery however met with small favor from the public for a number of years. In the first year one hundred and thirteen monuments of all sorts were erected, and for the next seven years but an average of fifty annually. The causes of this neglect are said to be the wars of that period and the mania of victory which absorbed all France. But after the pacification of Europe it grew rapidly into favor, so that in 1815 there were eighteen hundred and seventy-seven monuments, and in 1836 there were numbered thirty-one thousand monuments of all sorts. In a central position stands a chapel of Grecian architecture, for funeral service. The material of the monuments, the costly and the better sort, is marble, and the epitaphs of every description. Those who desire, will find their curiosity abundantly gratified by consulting the "Guide," noted at our head. We cannot, however, omit the monument of Marshal Ney, a plain slab, not of marble, at the eastern end of a plat, enclosed by a plain iron railing, bearing the inscription,

Ci-git le maréchal Ney, duc d'Elchingen, prince de la Moscowa, décédé le 7 décembre 1815.

Four fir trees grace the plat, and this is all which speaks of "that iron man."

1849.]

Père La Chaise at Paris.

455

At a later period three other cemeteries, similar in their character and general plan, were established around Paris, viz. Mont-Martre on the west, containing thirty acres, Mont-Parnasse on the south, and Vaugirard on the south-west; the two latter of much smaller dimensions, and all inferior to the Père La Chaise.

From the Père La Chaise we take it (for we are not travelled), our own Mount Auburn, near Boston, is modelled, and the cemeteries at Brooklyn, N. Y., Laurel Hill at Philadelphia, Mount Hope at Rochester, N. Y., the one at Springfield, Mass., and others. Mount Auburn, more than twice the extent of Père La Chaise, and not inferior, as we believe, in natural adaptation, may yet rival its prototype in all respects. The Springfield cemetery has one exceedingly interesting characteristic. From its alluvial hills there gush forth, ad libitum, springs of the purest water, furnishing facilities in abundance for ornamental jets and refreshing pools. It is our ardent wish that these beginnings may be carried on to any extent of excellence, not in wasteful gorgeousness of individual display, (that is not excellence, but folly: there are pyramids and mausolea and Petras enough for one world already,) but we wish to see the last habitation cared for, protected, and such ornament and expense bestowed as propriety and good taste dictate. And there may be established a standard of good taste in this respect as well as in literature. Moreover, rural and horticultural cultivation will do much in accomplishing this object. It begets a community of interest in all concerned, a commendable esprit du corps; for we seem to have a propriety in what grows up immediately from the hand of God, although it be more particularly our neighbors'. We feel this owner. ship far more than we do in masses of dead stone, on which the eye of melancholy alone can rest. "Le Veritable Guide" closes with a description of a monument in Mont-Parnasse of a young wife. Julia, alone, is engraven on the stone. For two years, two or three times every week, the husband visited this grave and cultivated the plat; and not that only, but, at his own expense, the grounds around, to a considerable distance, comprising many monuments of those strangers to him. How much more cheerful also and significant of that which alone alleviates the gloom of the grave, viz. the hope of the life to come, is the living soul, so to speak, of the tree and shrub, which rises from the dead every spring and sends forth its fragrance, than the cold, motionless, silent marble! We cannot but commend the taste of the old patriarch, when purchasing the field of Ephron the Hittite, he contracted not only for the field and the cave therein, but "for all the trees that were in the field, and that were in all the borders round about."

We ardently desire, therefore, that the models which have been so happily begun among us may be finished, as we have no doubt they will be, in ultimate excellence. We devoutly exhort all from the country who can, in their visits to metropolitan places, to turn aside from their business and pleasure and find both a business and pleasure in the observation and study of rural cemeteries. There is more inexcusable negligence approaching barbarism, in our country cemeteries, than most are aware of. Who does not know of many where the enclosure is defenceless, and herds trample the mounds under foot; where thorns and thistles and burdocks, unsightly things, emblems of the curse, grow up in offensive luxuriance; monuments fallen, leaning, and inscriptions obliterated, the whole looking like a potter's field, purchased with "the mean salary of Judas?" We know of some, few we rejoice to say, which have been entered by barbarians, who have broken down monuments by violence, indiscriminately and in mere wantonness. These things ought not so to be, in a Christian country, that boasts of its preeminence over Turks. The Turks respect not only what they call their own, but the graves of strangers also. Through their care, we shall yet have access to the patriarchal cemetery at Mamre, the prototype of all. Whoever visits Mount Auburn or its like, will hardly feel it in his heart to treat with rudeness or neglect any last resting place of his species.

We

We complain of the small care that is taken in the selection of material for common tumulary stones. In our primitive sections of country slate abounds, and is much used; but from its schistose structure it is perishable, and the inscription liable to flake entirely off, and so one source of local history lost. Steatite is both inelegant and too soft. Most of the sandstones are too coarse and perishable for permanently legible inscriptions; and even our marbles are disappointing, because their polish will not stand the wear and tear of our climate. should like to see the Quincy granite substituted to a great extent. A square prism of granite polished on one surface, or a block of the dimensions in inches, 36. 15. 6. for the part above ground, and extending below 27 inches, would unite durability, erect position, permanency of inscription, and enduring beauty, better than any other material. The first cost of such a monument would be little if any greater than the more perishable material now used; and in the rapid extension of railway transportation the Quincy quarry is almost at the door of all. The great desideratum in a monument should be endurWe want it to last a thousand years at least; for thus much, the Jews assure us, the sacred period has yet to run. The Quincy granite admits of fine lettering also, whether sunk or raised, another

ance.

1849.]

Improvement in Rural Cemeteries.

457

desideratum when we regard the men of a thousand years hence. This remark suggests another offence in the monuments of country cemeteries, which by this time should be removed. We mean the illiterate character of inscriptions. Words are mispelled, wrongly divided at the end of a line, and sentences so punctuated, that the eye is pained. This is tolerable in such an age as Gray's Elegy refers to-" spelt by the unlettered muse," but it is intolerable now. Yet there are many manufacturers of grave stones in New England having some skill in polishing and graving, who are utterly destitute of literary taste. They ruin a stone for which they ask fifty dollars, by orthographical and other blunders. Such forfeit their claim to patronage, and their patrons should give the city the monopoly.

The Christian custom of burying with the head towards the west, is generally observed with us. We hope to see no innovation of this custom; for whether it arose from tradition, that such was the disposition of our Saviour's body in Joseph's sepulchre, as some assert, or according to others from a fanciful inference from Christ's words, "For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be," and therefore lying in the last sleep with the head towards the west would be the most convenient position for the awakening body to rise up and catch-that is, the reunited spirit catch-the first glimpse of the Son of Man, it matters not. It is a Christian custom-let it be perpetuated. The most remarkable violation of this custom we remember to have seen, is where it was least to be expected, viz. at Old Plymouth, on Burial Hill. Here the bodies lie all ways. Sir Thomas Browne, if he were to rise from his own grave and survey that ground, would say: "This body, whose head is towards the north, was a Persian; that, whose head is towards the east, was a Phoenician; whereto pertaineth that third, which looketh towards neither cardinal point, were difficult in the conjecture; but this fourth, whose head is towards the west, is, past controversy, a Christian, to whatsoever nation he pertaineth."

It cannot be expected that rural cemeteries, after the model of Père La Chaise and Mount Auburn, will extend much into the country. They are metropolitan in their character, they need the resources of the rich, and the spirit of a dense population. Nevertheless they may be multiplied to some extent. Our country is a country of rising villages, and wealth is increasing. There is many a village in whose vicinity lies a piece of ground of good adaptation for such a purpose, and perhaps is worth but little for most other. The man who can awaken in his neighborhood a desire and originate a movement in this behalf, will deserve well of posterity and humanity. But the influence VOL. VI. No. 23.

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of these model cemeteries on the country, if they are not imitated to any considerable extent, must in many respects be great and good. We wish them abundant encouragement. Everv cemetery should be made, if possible, attractive and not repulsive. It is a place that all have occasion to visit and revisit, and it is the place of the last visit, the dire necessity of man. Some of the most durable impressions are there received, especially in those of tender years. We own our obligations to the man who wrote the stanza in the old New England Primer, however homely.

We shall never forget it, nor the associations it created. The more inviting the cemetery is made, the more frequented it will be and the deeper the benign impressions.

Many are the motives which conspire to a care for the dead, some higher, some lower. In the matter of a cemetery we make no criticisms and ask no questions, but accept the contribution whatever be the motive. If it be posthumous recognition among men, we accept it; if it be respect and affection for friends, we honor it; if it be the hope of a resurrection, we rejoice at it and sympathize most of all. But as Protestants, surely no diversity of religious sentiment should sever any community from a cordial union in such a work. For our selves, we cheerfully avow the belief of a literal resurrection from the dead, and acknowledge that as the supreme motive of interest in the subject. We believe it a thing not incredible that God will raise the very body in which a man dies. No philosophical dilemmas that are raised, affect us any more than the old puzzles of the crocodile and the like. God is able and certainly will follow with his special providence every elementary particle that is needful for the reconstruction, and call it from its hiding place. He can and will prevent these particles from constituting successive bodies or coëxisting bodies at the moment of death, so as to involve a philosophical impossibility in the reconstruction. He who guides the planet in its proper orbit can watch over and guide the atom. God will raise the dead to life again. As little are we moved by the assertion that the vis vitae of the physiologists-the principle of life-which being coëxtensive with the body