"Ifye wised of kings tells us, tljat it is better to go to the 'House of 

 Mourning , tljan to that of laughter. afind those who have well con- 

 sider d the grounds he had for this his judgment, will not, by tJ;c title 

 of this book i as melancholy as it appears^, be affrighted from the 

 perusing it. 



' what we read to have been, and still to be, the custom of some 

 nations, to make sepulchres the repositories of their greatest riches, is 

 (J am sure) universally true in a moral sense, however it may be 

 thought in the literal; there being never a grave but what conceals a 

 treasure, though all have not the art to discover it. J do not here 

 invite tl)e covetous miser to disturb the dead, who can frame no idea of 

 treasure distinct from gold and silver ; but him who knows that wisdom 

 and virtue are the true and sole riches of man. Is not truth) a treasure, 

 tl)ink you ? \\'1)icl) yet, {Democritus assures us, is buried in a deep pit 

 or grave; and he Ijad reason; for whereas we meet elsewhere with) 

 nothing but pain and deceit, we no sooner look down into a grave, but 

 truth faceth us, and tells us our own. Mubet. 



IX 



