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That worldly Goods they may procure,
And Wealth immense obtain,
Their Breasts Men hourly will expose,
Temptations to sustain.
But Men whom Dangers thus surround,
Fortune compels to bend
Their Footsteps to those beaten Paths
Which to Destruction tend.
The KNIGHT, or SOLDIER.
_In a Moment shall they die, and the People shall be troubled at
Midnight, and pass away: And the Mighty shall be taken away without Hand._
JOB xxxiv. 20.
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Against the Man who Wars excites,
And does mild Peace despise,
(Peace, that to all great Blessings brings)
The People shall arise:
To Courage only they shall trust,
This Tyrant fierce to tame;
And fall he shall, but by a Stroke
No human Hand shall aim;
For him who, to oppress Mankind,
Shall mighty Arms employ,
Resistless Death shall suddenly
By an ill Fate destroy.
The COUNT.
_For when he dieth, he shall carry nothing away: His Glory shall not
descend after him._
PSALM xlix. 17.
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None of those Honours which the Great
And Mighty now attend,
When Death shall cast them from their Seat,
Shall to the Grave descend.
No Ensigns of a glorious Race
They thither shall convey,
Nor Titles high; for in the Grave
They nought but Dust shall be.
The OLD MAN.
_My Breath is corrupt, my Days are extinct, the Graves are ready for me._
JOB xvii. 1.
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Exhausted Strength my feeble Nerves
No longer now does brace,
And, like a River’s rapid Stream,
My Life flows out apace.
The Time, which no One can recall,
How swift a Flight has ta’en!
And nothing but the silent Tomb
For me does now remain.
Tir’d of the Ills of a long Life,
And sick of all its Cares,
For speedy Death I now address
To Heav’n my anxious Pray’rs.
The COUNTESS.
_They spend their Days in Wealth, and in a Moment go down to the Grave._
JOB xxi. 13.
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In num’rous Joys their rapid Life
The thoughtless Virgins waste,
And ev’ry Kind of Pleasure seek
With Eagerness to taste.
From Cares and Sorrow they are free,
No Thought their Minds to tire,
A vacant Life, full fraught with Bliss,
They earnestly desire.
But in the Grave they shall be laid,
By Death’s all-piercing Dart,
Where he their Pleasures exquisite
Shall into Grief convert.
The NEW-MARRIED COUPLE.
_The Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but Death part thee and
me._
RUTH i. 17.
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This is true Love, and this alone,
Which Two in One conjoins,
And in Affection’s strongest Bands
And mutual Friendship binds.
This Union shall, alas! endure
By much too short a Time;
One Death severe can two divide
Whom Bands of Wedlock join.
The DUTCHESS.
_Thou shalt not come down off that Bed on which thou art gone up, but
shalt surely die._