Page 42 - Graveyard

40 | G r av e y ar d H u m o r

73. On John Baskerville.

Extract from the very singular will of the late Mr. John Baskerville, a
celebrated printer at Birmingham, who died in 1775,—together with his
epitaph, written by himself:—

My farther will and pleasure is, and I do hereby declare, that the devise
of my goods and chattels, as above, is upon the express condition, that
my wife, in concert with my executors, do cause my body to be buried
in a conical building in my own premises, heretofore used as a mill,
which I have lately raised higher and painted, and in a vault, which I
have prepared for it. This doubtless to many will appear a whim;
perhaps it is so, but it is a whim for many years resolved upon, as I
have a hearty contempt of all superstition, the farce of a consecrated
ground, the Irish barbarism of “sure and certain hopes,” etc. As I also
consider Revelation, as it is called, exclusive of the scraps of morality
casually intermixed with it, to be [we omit here a very indecent
reflection]. I expect some shrewd remarks will be made on this my
declaration by the ignorant and bigoted, who cannot distinguish
between religion and superstition, and are taught the belief that
morality (by which I understand all the duties a man owes to God and
his fellow-creatures) is not sufficient to entitle him to Divine favour,
without professing to believe (as they call it) certain absurd doctrines
and mysteries, of which they have no more conceptions or ideas than a
horse. This morality alone I profess to have been my religion, and the
rule of my actions; to which I appeal how far my profession and
practice has been consistent.

The Epitaph.
Stranger,
Beneath this cone, in unconsecrated ground,
A friend to the liberties of mankind directed his body to be inurned.
May the example contribute to emancipate thy mind
From the idle fears of Superstition,
And the wicked Arts of Priesthood!