irtue as the highest honour. The glory of eminent station, of ancient
family, of warlike deeds, and of courtly privileges may be conspicuously
exhibited in one district; while in another the dead are honoured in
proportion to their contempt of human greatness, even when won by
achievements; to their having lived with a sole regard "to things unseen
and eternal." An inscription which breathes the pride of a noble family
in telling that "all the sons were brave, and all the daughters chaste,"
presents a summary of the morals of the age and class to which it
belongs. It tells that the supreme honour of men was to be brave, and of
women to be chaste; excluding the supposition of each sharing the virtue
of the other: whereas, when courage and purity shall be understood in
their full signification, it will have become essential to the honour of
a noble family that all the sons should be also pure, and all the
daughters brave. Then bravery will signify moral rather than physical
courage, and purity of mind will be considered no attribute of sex.

Even the nature of the public services commemorated, where public
service is considered the highest praise, may indicate much. It is a
fact of no small significance whether a man is honoured after death for
having made a road, or for having founded a monastery, or endowed a
school; whether he introduced a new commodity, or erected a church;
whether he marched adventurously in the pursuit of conquest, or fought
bravely among his native mountains to guard the homes of his countrymen
from aggression. The German, the French, the Swiss monuments of the
present century all tell the common tale that men have lived and died:
but with what various objects did they live! and in what a variety of
hope and heroism did they die! All were proud of their respective
differences while they lived; and, now that their contests are at an
end, they afford materials of speculation to the stranger who ponders
upon their tombs.

A variety, perhaps a contrariety of praise, may be found in the epitaphs
of a country, a city, or a single cemetery. Where this diversity is
found, it testifies to the diversity of views held, and therefore to the
freedom of the prevailing religious sentiment. Everywhere, however,
there is an affection and esteem for certain virtues. Disinterestedness,
fidelity, and love are themes of praise everywhere. Some may have no
sympathy for the deeds of the warrior, and others for the discov