In strange contrast with this Christian woman 's memorial was that of an infidel whose gravestone , by his own direction , bore an avowal of his belief that the spirit within him would be extinguished like a flame , and that the nothingness whence he sprang would receive him again . Mr. Wigglesworth consulted me as to the propriety of enabling a dead man 's dust to utter this dreadful creed . `` If I thought , '' said he , `` that a single mortal would read the inscription without a shudder , my chisel should never cut a letter of it . But when the grave speaks such falsehoods , the soul of man will know the truth by its own horror . '' `` So it will , '' said I , struck by the idea . `` The poor infidel may strive to preach blasphemies from his grave , but it will be only another method of impressing the soul with a consciousness of immortality . '' There was an old man by the name of Norton , noted throughout the island for his great wealth , which he had accumulated by the exercise of strong and shrewd faculties combined with a most penurious disposition . This wretched miser , conscious that he had not a friend to be mindful of him in his grave , had himself taken the needful precautions for posthumous remembrance by bespeaking an immense slab of white marble with a long epitaph in raised letters , the whole to be as magnificent as Mr. Wigglesworth 's skill could make it . There was something very characteristic in this contrivance to have his money 's worth even from his own tombstone , which , indeed , afforded him more enjoyment in the few months that he lived thereafter than it probably will in a whole century , now that it is laid over his bones . This incident reminds me of a young girl -- a pale , slender , feeble creature most unlike the other rosy and healthful damsels of the Vineyard , amid whose brightness she was fading away . Day after day did the poor maiden come to the sculptor 's shop and pass from one piece of marble to another , till at last she pencilled her name upon a slender slab which , I think , was of a more spotless white than all the rest . I saw her no more , but soon afterward found Mr. Wigglesworth cutting her virgin-name into the stone which she had chosen . `` She is dead , poor girl ! '' said he , interrupting the tune which he was whistling , `` and she chose a good piece of stuff for her headstone . Now , which of these slabs would you like best to see your own name upon ? '' `` Why , to tell you the truth , my good Mr. Wigglesworth , '' replied I , after a moment 's pause , for the abruptness of the question had somewhat startled me -- `` to be quite sincere with you , I care little or nothing about a stone for my own grave , and am somewhat inclined to scepticism as to the propriety of erecting monuments at all over the dust that once was human . The weight of these heavy marbles , though unfelt by the dead corpse or the enfranchised soul , presses drearily upon the spirit of the survivor and causes him to connect the idea of death with the dungeon-like imprisonment of the tomb , instead of with the freedom of the skies . Every gravestone that you ever made is the visible symbol of a mistaken system . Our thoughts should soar upward with the butterfly , not linger with the exuviæ that confined him . In truth and reason , neither those whom we call the living , and still less the departed , have anything to do with the grave . ''
`` I never heard anything so heathenish , '' said Mr. XXXXX , perplexed and displeased at sentiments which controverted all his notions and feelings and implied the utter waste , and worse , of his whole life 's labor .
Christian Norton Wigglesworth avowal century damsels day headstone months slabs