Excerpt from Epitaphs From Burial Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts, From 1657 to 1892: With Biographical and Historical Notes

The importance of monuments and inscriptions cannot be too strongly stated. But for these, many persons, as well as events worthy of remembrance, would have been forgotten. In the early days of epitaphial writings, inscriptions were prohibited except upon the monuments of illustrious persons, but now it is the universal custom among all classes of people to adopt them.

An epitaph to the honor of the dead has ever been regarded as of all praise the most noble and the most pure, especially when it expresses the character and actions of the good. Private virtues are as much entitled to this homage as public ones, and the title of a good parent, a good friend, and a good citizen is worthy of being engraved on brass or marble. Thus the tomb of a good man may in some degree be made to supply the want of his presence, and attach a veneration to his memory, and prove a benefit by his example. Records on tombstones, says Leigh Hunt, are introducers of the living to the dead, makers of mortal acquaintances, and one touch of nature, ' in making the whole world kin, gives them the right of speaking like kindred to and of one another.

An eminent writer says, \vhen I properly look upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies within me, - when I read the epitaphs of the beauti ful, every inordinate desire goes out, - when I see the grief of parents for chil dren, my heart melts with compassion. - and yet, when afterwards I have beheld the tombs of parents themselves. I see, the vanity of grieving for those that we must follow, when I see kings by those who deposed them.

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