ngelo himself; nor is it easy to
imagine a greater absurdity than that of gracing the walls of a
Christian temple, with the figure of Mars leading a hero to battle, or
Cupids sporting round a virgin. The pope who defaced the statues of the
deities at the tomb of Sannazarius is, in my opinion, more easily to be
defended, than he that erected them.

It is, for the same reason, improper to address the epitaph to the
passenger, a custom which an injudicious veneration for antiquity
introduced again at the revival of letters, and which, among many
others, Passeratius suffered to mislead him in his epitaph upon the
heart of Henry, king of France, who was stabbed by Clement the monk,
which yet deserves to be inserted, for the sake of showing how beautiful
even improprieties may become in the hands of a good writer.

Adsta, viator, et dole regum vices.
Cor regis isto conditur sub marmore,
Qui jura Gallis, jura Sarmatis dedit;
Tectus cucullo hunc sustulit sicarius.
Abi, viator, et dole regum vices.

In the monkish ages, however ignorant and unpolished, the epitaphs were
drawn up with far greater propriety than can be shown in those which
more enlightened times have produced.

Orate pro anima miserrimi peccatoris,

was an address, to the last degree, striking and solemn, as it flowed
naturally from the religion then believed, and awakened in the reader
sentiments of benevolence for the deceased, and of concern for his own
happiness. There was nothing trifling or ludicrous, nothing that did not
tend to the noblest end, the propagation of piety, and the increase of
devotion.

It may seem very superfluous to lay it down as the first rule for
writing epitaphs, that the name of the deceased is not to be omitted;
nor should I have thought such a precept necessary, had not the practice
of the greatest writers shown, that it has not been sufficiently
regarded. In most of the poetical epitaphs, the names for whom they were
composed, may be sought to no purpose, being only prefixed on the
monument. To expose the absurdity of this omission, it is only necessary
to ask how the epitaphs, which have outlived the stones on which they
were inscribed, would have contributed to the information of posterity,
had they wanted the names of those whom they celebrated.

In drawing the character of the deceased, there are no rules to be
observed which do not equally relate to other compositions. The praise
ought not to be genera