PREFACE. IT was the intention of the Editor to prepare a work that should contain a particular description of the objects in Mount Auburn. He was afterwards persuaded that this could not be so interesting as certain themes suggested by these objects, and having a general application to burial customs. The details which have been omitted were more suitable to a work intended as a guide-book to Mount Auburn. Similar matters, compiled in a judicious and interesting manner, are published weekly in "The Mount Auburn Memorial," a journal conducted with excellent taste and judgment by Mr. Safford. As announced in our Prospectus, it was also a secondary object of this work to offer incidental remarks on the general principles of taste, that should govern the artist and proprietor in the construction of monuments and fences, in the planting of trees, shrubs, and flowers, and in the general disposition of all these objects. We have endeavored to avoid all uninteresting details; for it is designed that the work shall not possess entirely a local or temporary interest, but shall be instructive to many, and afford themes of consolatory reflection to all. |