Henry Dexter, Sculptor; A Memorial (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898 edition. Excerpt: ...to go out to Mount Auburn to see The Binney Child. With some truth it may be said visitors went there for that single purpose; and it continues to be a great attraction. Time and storms have made sad records on the delicately chiselled features; and it became necessary, in order to save it from complete destruction, to enclose it in glass, which has been done by the filial daughter of the sculptor. Memorial sculpture for private persons and families has lately given place to extreme and unadorned simplicity. A small plain stone, with name and date in briefest compass, is just now the ruling taste; or, for more distinguished persons, a natural bowlder, with possibly a verse or significant quotation. Such bowlders mark the graves of Emerson and Agassiz, and of a lesser man, Levi Thaxter; on the sea-worn side of the latter's monument is inscribed an epitaph of six lines expressly written for it by Robert Browning. Forests of white marble memorials no longer afflict the subdued tastes of the more cultivated classes, nor mar the beauty of God's acres of green turf, their " mortal hillocks," and their sheltering trees. Still one must often note the touching exception in the case of young children cut off before their time. The old and the distinguished can take care of their posthumous memories; but it is hard to give up to nothingness and oblivion those infantile souls who have not had time to cause themselves to be remembered among men. They must have the tribute of art and poetry to perpetuate their short and blessed years. Nor can we regret this, since it has been the motif of much of the finest statuary the world over, and made it possible for alien eyes and hearts to pay respect to the early dead, and share the pain of years that had...