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reference to the departed than a Scriptural

quotation can supply.

The influence of epitaphs on society is of a salutary kind. A churchyard is a volume whose admonitions are usually sought when the heart is best prepared to receive them; and he who is softened and impressed by reflections on the dead is not likely to indulge in bitterness and injustice towards the living.

The most simple classification of youth, maturity, and age has been adopted in composing the inscriptions, with little reference to rank and those distinctions in society, which in this life are so precarious, and which death utterly destroys.

At the same time, the diversified cha

racter of life and the varied circumstances of dissolution have not been disregarded.

The epitaphs are thrown together promiscuously in the Volume, to impart a variety which may recommend it to the general Reader.

As the Churchyard Lyrist is intended to be practically and generally useful, it is adapted to different degrees of intelligence. Originality and taste, however desirable, affect, comparatively, but a few, while the many are more accessible to the plainer precepts of piety and morality.

The considerate will not object to the numerous instances in which the Author has availed himself of the thoughts of other

writers without this indulgence, the difficulty of preparing the present publication would have been as much increased, as the interest of the work would have been diminished.

A recent publication has, in a degree, supplied the want of original epitaphs, but not so amply as to render the present work unnecessary. The whole of the inscriptions now offered to the public were

written some time before the publication of Doctor Booker made its appearance.

CONTENTS.

As the epitaphs are for the most part suitable
to the gravestones of different characters, so a
general index is unnecessary. The following list
contains the numbers of such as are more imme-
diately applicable to particular cases.

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