Posterity, thy soothing love I feel,
That o'er my volumes many an age may steal:
But hard it is the well-clear'd eye to cheat
With honours undeserved, too fond deceit!
Greece, greatly eloquent, and full of fame,
Sighs for the want of many a perish'd name;
And Rome o'er her illustrious children mourns,
Their fame departing with their mouldering urns.
How can I hope, by such examples shown,
More than a transient day, a passing sun?
Enough for me to win the present age,
And please a brother with a brother's page.
By other verses, addressed to Cranmer, it would appear that Leland was
experiencing anxieties to which he had not been accustomed,--and one
may suspect, by the opening image of his "Supellex," that his pension
was irregular, and that he began, as authors do in these hard cases,
to value "the furniture" of his mind above that of his house.