The cream of curiosity, being an account of certain historical and literary manuscripts of the XVIIth, XVIIIth & XIXth centuries . n long desired. Cupiodissolvi et esse cum Christo. Even to the un-righteous or earthly man comes the mercifuloblivion that is all his hope ; the draught that isthe death of care, the long forgetfulness . Easy todie, nor any the less easy, once dead, to be trouble begins with the desire of man to thwartthe course of nature and set up his rock of fameagainst the eternal flux. The desire in itself isnatural enough. Every man clings by instinct to hisego
The cream of curiosity, being an account of certain historical and literary manuscripts of the XVIIth, XVIIIth & XIXth centuries . n long desired. Cupiodissolvi et esse cum Christo. Even to the un-righteous or earthly man comes the mercifuloblivion that is all his hope ; the draught that isthe death of care, the long forgetfulness . Easy todie, nor any the less easy, once dead, to be trouble begins with the desire of man to thwartthe course of nature and set up his rock of fameagainst the eternal flux. The desire in itself isnatural enough. Every man clings by instinct to hisego while he may, and seeks to perpetuate his memoryafter he has gone down into the river Lethe. Thoughphilosophers may jeer and poets mock the boast ofOzymandias, the ordinary human is not to bedeterred from grasping the poor semblance ofimmortality that is within his power. No, thetrouble is not in the desire. It is in the poverty ofits expression. There is nothing less easy than thewriting of an epitaph. To compose a perfect oneis perhaps impossible. The dead might do this, asindeed they are feigned to in the Greek Anthology,. In Gods Acre 341 for they have due knowledge and detachment, andcan see the whole. The living see as in a glassdarkly. They grope and hesitate among half7truths and are never sure whether to give moreaccount to the Here or the Hereafter. With ourChristian epitaphs this is especially the case. Theylose artistically from a lack of unity in the centralemotion. They attempt too much. This mortalwould put on immortality as well for the body asthe soul. Though the glory of the celestial is oneand the glory of the terrestrial another, he wouldat one and the same time shine with the doublesplendour. And so too often we see, added to theself-satisfaction of a life well-lived, the smug antici-pation of the life to come. The nouveau-mort ismade to seem as vulgar as the nouveau riche. In theextreme it produces something notoriously foolish,like this from Pewsley churc
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