However
unlettered the muse, however hackneyed the rhyme, however misapplied
the text, it is consolatory to see them employed. Man dwells with a
melancholy satisfaction upon the tomb-stones of his relations and
friends, and not of them alone, but of all whom he has known or of whom
he has heard.--A mere _hic jacet_, with the name and years of him that
sleeps beneath, frequently recals the most lively impressions; and he
who would destroy epitaphs would destroy a great incitement to
virtue.--In other parts of France tomb-stones, or crosses charged with
monumental inscriptions, have re-appeared: at Bernay we saw only two;
one of them commemorated a priest of the town; the other was erected at
the public expence, to the memory of three gendarmes, who were killed at
the beginning of the revolution, and before religion was proscribed, in
the suppression of some tumult.
At less than a mile from Bernay, in the opposite direction, is another
church, called Notre Dame de la Couture, a name borrowed from the
property on which it stands. We were induced to visit it, by the
representation of different persons in the town, who had noticed our
architectural propensities. Some assured us that "C'est une belle
piece;" others that "C'est une piece qui n'est pas vilaine;" and all
concurred in praising it, though some only for the reason that "les
processions vont tout autour du choeur.
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