N.
Epitaphs.—The shortest, plainest, and truest, are the best.
I say the shortest, for when a passenger sees a chronicle written upon a tomb, he takes it on trust that some great man lies there buried, without taking pains to examine who it is. Mr Cambden, in his “Remains,” presents us with examples of great men who had little epitaphs. And when once a witty gentleman was asked, what epitaph was fittest to be written on Cambden’s tomb, “let it be,” said he, “Cambden’s remains.” I say also the plainest, for except the sense lie above ground, few will trouble themselves to dig for it. Lastly, it must be true; not as in some monuments, where the red veins in the marble may seem to blush at the falsehoods written on it. He was a witty man who first taught a stone to speak, but he was a wicked man who first taught it to lie. A good memory is the best monument; others are subject to casualty and time; and we know that the Pyramids themselves, doting with age, have forgotten the names of their founders.—Scrap Book.
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TRANSCRIBERS’ NOTES
General: Corrections to punctuation have not been individually noted