"Et mihi non ullo pondere terra foret."
Again, in Ovid—
"Et sit humus cineri non onerosa tuo!"
Thus also Juvenal, Sat. vii.—
"Di majorum umbris tenuem et sine pondere terram,
Spirantesque crocos, et in urna perpetuum ver!"
Again, in Persius, Sat. i.—
"Non levior cippus nunc imprimit ossa?
... nunc non e manibus illis,
Nunc non e tumulo fortunataque favilla
Nascentur violæ?"
On the contrary, Sit tibi terra gravis and Urgeat ossa lapis were usual maledictions, the ancients supposing that the soul remained for some time after death with the body, and was partner in its confinement. The latter of these wishes is ludicrously adopted by Dr Evans, in his epitaph on Sir J. Vanbrugh—
"Lie heavy on him, earth! for he
Laid many a heavy weight on thee."
It may be observed that such ideas, however poetical, have no great degree of propriety when introduced into Christian elegies, as we have no belief that the soul is in danger of being oppressed by a monument or stifled in a grave.—Steevens.