Pope’s Skull in Museum.
Another poet has suffered in much the same manner. The skull of Alexander Pope is now in a private museum. On some occasion the coffin was opened and a phrenologist gave two hundred and fifty dollars to the sexton to be allowed to take the skull home overnight. In the morning another skull was substituted and the poet’s deposited in the phrenologist’s museum.
Against the curiosity of science there is no safeguard. Recently Kaiser Wilhelm had the grave of Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle opened again, this time for the purpose of photographing the fabrics in which the hero was wrapped. Against this violation of the sepulcher Jules Claretie, in an article written for the Paris Figaro and translated for the Boston Transcript, has protested vigorously. Claretie says:
After such combats, labors, and mighty thoughts, he dreamed of repose, like the poet Moses. Repose! There is none in this world for the illustrious dead. We waken them through mere curiosity.