NORTHERN MEMOIRS. 49 



a monarch ; and where every ambitious clown 

 aspires to the eminency of a crown. 



Theoph. Xow for a book and a brook, to con- 

 template and recreate ; this rises to the standard 

 of the philosopher's solitudes. Rocks and rivers 

 with hermetick groves, shadowed with myrtles 

 and purling streams, will, for ought I know, bet- 

 ter answer our present occasion, than a foreign 

 hope can insure us accommodation. 



Arn. These elementary bodies, the beautiful 

 rags of flesh and blood, what present they but 

 moving shadows, that vanish in a moment at 

 death's appearance ? 



Theoph. And do not some men undermine 

 themselves by supporting themselves on the 

 crutch of mortality ? But the arm that shakes 

 the foundation, cannot that arm shelter us from 

 the storm ? 



Arn. Yes sure, since he that made the world 

 gives it nutrition, who by his act of providence 

 makes provision for its continuation. Yet there's 

 nothing that had a beginning, but has its period, 

 and in conclusion melts into invisibility. 



Theoph. That's certainly true, for the wages 

 of sin is death ; all men therefore must die, so 

 must that proud tyrant of France, whose sins 

 above knee-deep have sunk him up almost to 

 the chin : so that whoever comes within com- 



D 



