locality, or in general in genealogical pursuits, to preserve these records of mortality from wanton or careless demolition. I trust a period has now arrived in which much may be done towards effecting this important end; and I would suggest as one means, that copies, or faithful abstracts, should be taken of the inscriptions on tombstones, or other monuments, by intelligent individuals in the respective localities, who should either cause printed copies to be made from time to time, or place their own transcripts in the custody of the minister; and though such transcripts would not be received in courts of justice as evidence, yet the preservation of names, dates, and circumstances affecting families, would be of the highest utility to the historian and the genealogist.
In the natural course of events we must expect the consequent dilapidation of monumental inscriptions;—a demolition of these monuments of our ancestors, as the effect of time alone, is daily taking place;—the devastation sometimes committed by the hand of the destroyer, by the ruthless arm of the inconsiderate, or by the unhallowed designs of interested delinquency, does much to obliterate the memorabilia of the dead, which have been, from time to time, erected in pious regard to departed worth. We shudder at such deliberate acts of sacrilege and impiety; but we may even be surprised that so many monuments of the dead still exist which have been exposed to the infuriated aggression of political or religious fanatics of different ages, or which have tempted the more criminal to destroy them for private and fraudulent purposes. In the utter carelessness of some, as regards the preservation of monumental inscriptions; or in the total disregard of others for the value of them as a source of evidence, either in a legal, or in a genealogical point of view, we may perhaps find something to extenuate:—their pursuits, their defective education, or want of experience in such matters, may be pleaded in their behalf. We have not all the same views; do not possess the same acquirements; or have not seen, in the same light, the importance of these records. It is a subject of the greatest regret to the genealogist and the antiquary that such memorials should fall, as it were, a sacrifice to this uncertainty of human views respecting them; but that regret is greatly enhanced when we find these consecrated monuments of our ancestors treated with every mark of disrespect, of unconcern, or of indecency; and, frequently,
