Note 577 — Chapter XIII · JOHN BASKERVILLE, 1752.
Reading edition
“Stranger,
beneath this cone, in unconsecrated ground,
a friend to the liberties of mankind directed his
body to be inurn’d.
May the example contribute to emancipate thy mind
from the idle fears of Superstition,
and the wicked arts of Priesthood.”
Touching this epitaph Archdeacon Nares has the following note:—“I heard John Wilkes, after praising Baskerville, add, “But he was a terrible infidel; he used to shock me !”