"If the wife be outlawed by erroneous process, and the hus"band will not bring a writ of error, he may by this way be rid "of a shrew, and that doth countervail a divorce. 18. E. 4. 4. a.

"And thus it appears," says the learned judge, who seems to dwell with great complacency on these resources, "that the law "provides a remedy to tame a shrew." A remedy for which there is so little occasion in this country, that I have ventured to send it to you as a curiosity worth preserving.

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.-POSTHUMOUS CHARACTERS.

As every practice which tends to mingle virtue and vice, or truth and falsehood, and to confuse and perplex those moral distinctions in different characters, which serve as a barrier to evil, and a protection to good, must be detrimental to the felicity of mankind, in proportion to their prevalence, it cannot be wholly undeserving of attention to investigate the extent of their harm, and not, perhaps, altogether useless, to endeavour to prevent their recurrence, or palliate their effects.

That an indiscriminate eulogy of the dead is an evil of this description, will appear obvious to every one, who regards truth with higher reverence than falsehood, and who prefers the happiness of society to individual gratification. It is flattery of an object incapable of vanity, and seems offending the ashes of the departed by a personification of human passions and foibles of which it has ceased to participate. He who bestows on a living character encomiums for moral or intellectual qualities which he does not possess, incurs the imputation either of want of sense or of virtue, as he is supposed too stupid to discern the true characters of men, or too unprincipled to feel abhorrence to wickedness. As such a man, whichever motive may actuate him, is commonly denominated a flatterer, so with equal reason, may we give the appellation of imposture to him who culogises the dead, for estimable qualities of which they were destitute. The veracity of the former, in such matter, gradually wears away, and the world understands him only as uttering empty

sounds, which express no sincere opinion, or known truth; whilst the assertions of the latter are implicitly believed by those ignorant of the individual, because they are solemnly averred, and are never contradicted by those convinced of their fallacy, because they are imagined to proceed from duty or affection. Hence the harm which results from flattery of the living is very diminutive, by comparison with that uselessly heaped upon the dead; the propensity of mankind to envy and detraction seldom suffers them to award to vice the honours due only to virtue, or to give to folly the meed of wisdom. Like the king and the clown, they are opposite and distinct characters, nor can the latter borrow the aspect and garb of the former without in the end being exposed to ridicule and contempt.

It may with reason excite our surprise, that posthumous flattery should be so abundantly heaped on the unworthy, while. living merit lacks the praise which genius and virtue might exact from the liberal, but which it disdains to solicit from the ignorant and sordid. That which is least required, is, however, most willingly bestowed, and caprice oftener apportions recompense than reason. With the dead envy also dies; competition becomes extinct, and hatred drops her malignant head. What is affirmed of them is seldom denied, and nothing is withheld which is known will prove useless; exaggerated praise is by consequence freely given to those whom it cannot excite to vanity, and elevate to prosperity; which cannot disparage our consequence, or jar with our interest. Such praise, then, when undeserved, seems to spring rather from selfish than liberal and disinterested motives; to be produced by the consideration that he will not be imagined envious who gives, spontaneously, exaggerated eulogy on the unsentient dead. Many, however, there are who bestow panegyric where its qualities are absent, from motives more praiseworthy, though not less injurious, from affection, gratitude, or benevolence.

"But where," exclaims a grateful friend, "is the impropriety, or as you would infer, the turpitude, of dressing the dead with virtues, some of which may be artificial and foreign to their characters? If envy is dead it cannot be excited, if hatred is extinct it cannot be exasperated? To throw some vir

tues, therefore, over the nakedness of vice, to cover its deformity, is certainly rather worthy of commendation than cen-> sure, when that which is thus given to the dead would be of little utility to the living: besides, it is mostly caused by the exuberance of love, the violence of grief, or the duty of gratitude; and is entitled to tolerance at least, only as it sooths and cherishes such amiable affections." Such an appeal would not be destitute of weight, if opposed to any other considerations than the imperative observance of truth, and the desirable preservation of sincerity. Truth we ever hold sacred and inviolable, from conviction of its necessity, and from a solemn impression resulting from divine inculcation; nor should even its apparent violation be deliberately committed, but for the most. evident and urgent purposes of good. In reply, then, to the above inquiry, I would ask, what good end can be attained by decorating the memory of a deceased friend with unmerited panegyric? To him the fragrant breath of flattery is as idle and indifferent as the murmuring of the wind through the hollow tomb which covers his ashes. Human praise is grateful to those alone who have not ceased to be mortal, and when it is profusely heaped upon the dead, as an ostensible object, there is reason to suspect, that in reality it is only intended to enhance the importance and flatter the vanity of the living. Human panegyric should not only be the reward of virtue, but it should never be prostituted to the unworthy; and when we offer it with sincerity at the shrine of merit, let the object be endowed with sensation, and conscious of his recompense. Or even if we could suppose, as kindred souls sometimes fancy, his spirit should hover over us, in its pristine purity, devested of corporeal imperfection, regarding the actions of men, how would he not blush, or shrink in conscious purity, from the song of praise, when composed of falsehood, and mingled with flattery? The conception is repugnant to our best feelings, and discordant to our nicest sensibility.

When an abuse becomes prevalent, it rarely happens that it does not destroy the object for which it was originally intended to compass. The knave, from the frequency of his frauds, soon ceases to be trusted, and the liar, from his constant violation of

truth, to be believed. The stranger, who reads an elaborate delineation of a modern character, whether on marble or on paper, is struck with admiration and surprise by such sublime perfection, until apprised of the custom of the country, when he suddenly reverses his opinion, and imagines he cannot form too abject a notion of the character of the dead. Fictitious eulogy must necessarily beget, in time, incredulity of belief; and thus, even the memory of the virtuous incurs an indiscriminate and common obloquy with the wicked, to varnish whose defects truth was violated, and virtue stripped of its merited fame!

It must, notwithstanding, be confessed, that the motives which induce to flattery, so useless, so absurd, and so hurtful, are often of a commendable nature; yet the general rule still obtains, though friendship or affection may sometimes offer disinterested encomiums, and express sincere sorrow. A widow may mourn a husband, affectionate and loving, and, in the freshness of grief, directs every thing to be said of him that is amiable and good. The gratitude of a friend may bestow on his patron or benefactor every possible virtue, because he himself has received benefit from his generosity or kindness; but the husband of the one, and the benefactor of the other, may be, and oftener are found destitute of virtue and genius, than incapable of vice or folly. Such unmerited encomiums on the dead, from their extreme prevalence, and absurd complexion, have come to be denominated, ironically, newspaper characters, as expressive of the degree of belief usually given to such turgid productions!

Let it not, however, be imagined, that I would proscribe the tribute of duty, of affection, or of gratitude; and there are very few whose obsequies are celebrated, that have not some claim to one of those feelings. Nor do I advocate the inscription of vice on the tombs of the fallible and weak, whose errors I could desire more perishable than humanity itself! I would recommend truth as the ornament of the epitaph, as well as the eulogy of the sepulchral tenant. Experience and charity induce us to believe that the number of human beings is very small who have not some predominance of virtue, let it be recorded, for though diminutive, it is fragrant to the soul; fewer still there

are who are not tainted by some vice, which it is better that oblivion should cover, than monumental record expose it to the world! Where no good can be faithfully narrated of the dead, it appears preferable to say nothing of their character; that he was born, lived, and died, without accomplishing a solitary action sufficiently worthy for mankind to imitate or admire, will, though a laconic lesson, be replete with instruction, and fruitful in reflection, to a sedate mind; whilst the omission of his foi bles will silence the derision of infidel folly, and cicatrize the wounded feelings of humanity.

It seems, therefore, an object entitled to our regard, to endeavour to abolish the fashionable mode of eulogizing the dead, for qualities at war with truth and their real characters; and to restore that faith and confidence in human assertions and narratives, without which the intercourse of man would be a chaos of incertitude, and the bands of society would grow too loose to preserve connexion and coherency.

August 30, 1811.

P. S.

BENJAMIN WEST, ESQ.

PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY.

BENJAMIN WEST, Esq. was born in the year 1738, at Springfield, Chester county, Pennsylvania, in America. His ancestors were a branch of the West family who were distinguished in the wars of Edward III. In the reign of Richard II they settled at Long Cranden, in Buckinghamshire, where they resided till about the year 1667, at which period they embraced the quaker principles, which were then in the infancy of propagation. It is believed that the first of the family who adopted quaker ism was a colonel James West, an officer much distinguished in the battle of Worcester, and by his attachment to the republican party, which at that time prevailed over the monarchy. A letter from the celebrated Hampden to this gentleman is still upon record.