Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Burying-grounds

BURYING-GROUNDS are places consecrated to the interment of dead bodies; and have, from the earliest institutions of society, been held in great veneration, both by Heathens and Christians. It is, however, to be regretted, that the latter paid less attention to the influence of such places on the health and comforts of the living, than the more sagacious Pagans, who generally appointed distant and elevated situations, for committing the remains of their friends to the maternal earth.

There can be no diversity of opinion as to the pernicious tendency of burying-grounds in the vicinity of dwelling-houses (see the Article Burial), especially in large and populous cities. Hence Dr. Darwin, in the true spirit of a philanthropic philosopher, boldly, though pertinently, remarks: No burials should be tolerated in churches or church-yards, where the monuments of departed sinners shoulder God's altar, pollute his holy places with dead men's bones, and, by putrid exhalations, produce contagious diseases among those who frequent his worship. Proper burial places should be consecrated out of towns, and divided into two compartments: the earth from one of these should be removed once in ten or twenty years, for the purposes of agriculture, when it will be sufficiently saturated with animal decomposition; and sand, or clay, or even soil that is less fertile, should be substituted. Dr. Darwin farther thinks, that the removal of this earth is not likely to shock the relations of the deceased, as the superstition concerning the clay, from which we rose, and into which we return, has gradually vanished before the light of reason. Instances of this happy change occurred, about thirty years ago, in removing a quantity of rich earth from the close of the cathedral at Lichfield; and more lately, in changing a burying-ground at Shrewsbury, both which were executed without exciting superstitious terror, or popular commotion. Although we cannot, in conformity to our professed sentiments, and injustice to the Doctor's benevolent design, on this occasion differ as to the propriety of the expedient he has suggested, yet we doubt whether the tide of prejudice, which influences the multitude, is not, at present, too powerful an obstacle to such innovations. Before attempts of this nature can be made with any hope of permanent success, we venture to say, that much remains to be previously done in our schools, as well as in private education, to unfetter the young mind from the chains of dogmatical slavery, and to inculcate principles of untainted morality, being the most substantial basis of pure Christianity.