ESSAYS CIVIL AND MORAL. &amp;lt; }7 



is, that they know they arc in danger to forfeit their flesh, but arc not 

 wise of the payment day : which sickly uncertainty is the occasion 

 that, for the most part, they step out of this world unfurnished for their 

 general account, and being all unprovided, desire yet to hold their 

 gravity, preparing their souls to answer in scarlet. 



Thus I gather, that death is disagreeable to most citizens, because 

 they commonly die intestate: this being a rule, that when their will is 

 * made, they think themselves nearer a grave than before : now they* 

 out of the wisdom of thousands, think to scare destiny, from which 

 there is no appeal, by not making a will, or to live longer by protesta 

 tion of their unwillingness to die. They are for the most part well 

 made in this world, accounting their treasure by legions, as men do 

 devils, their fortune looks towards them, and they are willing to anchor 

 at it, and desire, if it be possible, to put the evil day far off from them, 

 and to adjourn their ungrateful and killing period. 



No, these are not the men which have bespoken death, or whose 

 looks are assured to entertain a thought of him. 



Death arrives gracious only to such as sit in darkness, or lie heavy 

 burdened with grief and irons ; to the poor Christian, that sits bound 

 in the galley; to despairful widows, pensive prisoners, and deposed 

 kings : to them whose fortune runs back, and whose spirit mutinies ; 

 unto such death is a redeemer, and the grave a place for retircdncss 

 and rest. 



These wait upon the shore of death, and waft unto him to draw 

 near, wishing above all others to see his star, that they might be led 

 to his place, wooing the remorseless sisters to wind down the watch of 

 their life, and to break them off before the hour. 



But death is a doleful messenger to an usurer, and fate untimely 

 cuts their thread : for it is never mentioned by him, but when rumours 

 of war and civil tumults put him in mind thereof. 



And when many hands are armed, and the peace of a, city in 

 disorder, and the foot of the common soldiers sounds an alarm on his 

 stairs, then perhaps such a one, broken in thoughts of his moneys 

 abroad, and cursing the monuments of coin which are in his house, can 

 be content to think of death, and, being hasty of perdition, will perhaps 

 hang himself, lest his throat should be cut ; provided that he may 

 do it in his study, surrounded with wealth, to which his eye sends a 

 faint and languishing salute, evc-n upon the turning ofT; remembering 

 always, that he have time and liberty, by writing, to depute himself U 

 his own heir. 



For that is a great peace to his end, and reconciles him wonder 

 fully upon the point. 



Herein we all dally with ourselves, and are without proof till 

 necessity. I am not of those that dare promise to pine away myself 

 in vain-glory, and I hold such to be but feat boldness, and them that 

 dare commit it tc be vain. Yet, for my part, 1 think nature should do 

 me great wrong, if I should be so long in dying, as I was in being born. 



To speak truth, no man knows the lists of his own patience ; nor 

 can divine how able he shall be in his sufferings, till the storm comei 



