In thy fair Book of Life divine, Thy Saints, while Ages roll away, Their Glories, o'er the Wrongs of Time, Greatly triumphant, live. YONDER Entrance leads, I fuppofe, to the Vault. Let me turn afide, and take one View of the Habitation, and its Tenants. The fullen Door grates upon its Hinges: Not used to receive many Vifitants, it admits me with Reluctance and Murmurs. What meaneth this fudden Trepidation, while I descend the Steps, and am visiting the pale Nations of the Dead? Be compofed, my Spirits; there is nothing to fear in these quiet Chambers: "Here even the Wicked cease from troubling." GOOD Heavens! what a folemn Scene! How dismal the Gloom! Here is perpetual Darkness, and Night even at Noon-day. How doleful the Solitude! Not one Trace of chearful Society; but Sorrow and Terror seem to have made This their melan choly Abode. Hark! how the hollow Dome refounds at every Tread. The Echo's, that long have flept, are awakened, and whisper along the Walls. A BEAM, or two, finds its Way through the Grates, and reflects a feeble Glimmer from the Nails of the Coffins. So many of thofe fad Spectacles, half concealed in Shades, half feen dimly by the baleful Twilight, add a deeper Horror to thefe gloomy Caverns. And, I pore upon the Infcriptions, and am juft able to pick out, That These are the Remains of the Rich and Renowned. No vulgar Dead are depofited here. The most Illuftrious, and right Honourable, have claimed this for their laft Retreat. indeed, they retain fomewhat of a shadowy Pre-eminence. They lie, ranged in mournful Order, and in a fort of filent Pomp, under the Arches of an ample Sepulchre ; while meaner Corpfes, without much Ceremony, go down to the Stones of the Pit." My Apprehenfions recover from their Surprize: I find, here are no Phantoms, 5 but but fuch as Fear raises. -- However, it ftill amazes me, to obferve the Wonders of this nether World. Those who received vaft Revenues, and called whole Lordships their own, are here 'reduced to a few Sheets of Lead. Rooms of State, and fumptuous Furniture, are refigned, for no other Ornament than the Shroud, for no other Apartment than the gloomy Niche. No fplendid Retinue attend this folitary Dwelling: The lordly Equipage hovers no longer about the lifeless Mafter; nothing but a fable Plume, that feems to nod over his Tomb or a Statue, which the Sculptor's Hand has taught to weep. Inftead of the Star, that blazed upon the Breaft; or Coronet, that glittered round the Temples; the only Remains of departed Dignity are, the Wea ther-beaten Atchievement, and tatter'd Efcutcheon. Those who gloried in highborn Ancestors, and noble Pedigree, here drop their lofty Pretenfions. They acknowlege Kindred with creeping Things, and quarter Arms with the meanest Reptiles. "They fay to Corruption, Thou art my "Father; and to the Worm, Thou art my "Mother and my Sifter." O mortiH 2 fying fying Truth! Sufficient, one wou'd think, to wean the most fanguine Appetite from this tranfitory State of Things; from its fickly Satisfactions, its fading Glories, its vanishing Treasures. For now, ye lying Vanities of Life! Thoms. Wint: WHAT is all the World to these poor breathless Beings? What are their Pleafures? A Bubble broke. What their Honours? A Dream that is forgotten. What the Sum-total of their Enjoyments below? Once, perhaps, it appeared to in experienced and fond Defire, fomething confiderable: But now Death has measured it with his Line, and weighed it in his Scale, what is the Upfhot? Alas! 'tis fhorter than à Span; lighter than the dancing Spark; and driven away like the diffolving Smoke.- INDULGE, My Soul, a ferious Paufe. Recollect all the gay Things, that were wont to dazle thy Eyes, and inveigle thy Affections. Here examine thefe Baits of Senfe: Senfe real Value. Here form an Eftimate of their Suppofe thyself first among the Favourites of Fortune, who revel in the Lap of Pleasure, who fhine in the Robes of Honour, and fwim in Tides of inexhaufted Riches: Yet how foon wou'd the Paffing-Bell proclaim thy Exit! And when once that Iron Call has fummoned thee to thy future Reckoning, where would all these Gratifications be? At that Period, how will all the Pageantry of the most affluent, confpicuous, or luxurious Circumftances vanifh into empty Air? And is this a Happiness so paffionately to be coveted? I THANK YOU, ye Relicks of founding Titles, and magnificent Names: Ye have taught me more of the Littleness of the World, than all the Volumes of my Library. Your Nobility arrayed in a Winding-fheet, your Grandeur mouldering in an Urn, are the most invincible Proofs of the Nothingness of created Things. Never, furely, did Providence write this important Point in fuch legible Characters, as in the Afhes of My Lord, or on the Corpfe of His Grace. Let others, if they please, pay their obfequious Court to your wealthy Sons, |