ESSA YS CIVIL AND MORAL. 



must be, nor spend one wish to have one minute added to the incertain 

 date of my years. It was no mean apprehension of Lucian, who says 

 of Menippus, that in his travels through hell he knew not the kings of 

 the earth from other men, but only by their louder cryings and tears: 

 which was fostered in them through the remorseful memory of the 

 good days they had seen, and the fruitful havings which they so unwill 

 ingly left behind them : he that was well seated looked back at his 

 portion, and was loth to forsake his farm ; and others, either minding 

 marriages, pleasures, profit, or preferment, desired to be excused from 

 death s banquet ; they had made an appointment with earth, looking 

 at the blessings, not the hand that enlarged them, forgetting how 

 unclothedly they came thither, or with what naked ornaments they 

 were arrayed. 



But were we servants of the precept given, and observers of the 

 heathen s rule, &quot; memento mori,&quot; and not become benighted with this 

 seeming felicity, we should enjoy it as men prepared to lose, and not 

 wind up our thoughts upon so perishing a fortune : he that is not 

 sl.ickly strong, as the servants of pleasure, how can he be found 

 unready to quit the veil and false visage of his perfection ? The soul 

 having shaken off her llesh, doth then set up for herself, and contemn 

 ing things that are under, shows what finger hath enforced her ; for 

 the souls of idiots are of the same piece with those of statesmen, but 

 now and then nature is at a fault, and this good guest of ours takes soil 

 in an imperfect body, and so is slackened from showing her wonders ; 

 like an excellent musician, which cannot utter himself upon a defective 

 instrument. 



But see how I am swerved, and lose my course, touching at the 

 soul, that cloth least hold action with death, who hath the surest pro 

 perty in this frail act; his stile is the end of all flesh, and the beginning 

 of incorruption. 



This ruler of monuments leads men for the most part out of this 

 world with their heels forward; in token that he is contrary to life; 

 which being obtained, sends men headlong into this wretched theatre, 

 where being arrived, their first language is that of mourning. Nor in 

 my own thoughts, can I compare men more fitly to anything than to 

 the Indian fig-tree, which being ripened to his full height, is said to 

 decline his branches down to the earth ; whereof she conceives again, 

 and they become roots in their own stock. 



bo man having derived his being from the earth, first lives the life 

 of a tree, drawing his nourishment as a plant, and made ripe for death 

 he tends downwards, and is sowed again in his mother the earth, where 

 he perisheth not, but expects a quickening. 



So we see death exempts not a man from being, but only presents 

 an alteration ; yet there are some men, 1 think, that stand otherwise 

 persuaded. Death finds not a worse friend than an alderman, to whose 

 door I never knew him welcome ; but he is an importunate guest, and 

 will not be said nay. 



And though they themselves shall affirm, that they are not within, 

 yet the answer will not be taken ; and that which heightens their fear 



