There was much sound truth in the speech of a country lad to an idler,
who boasted his ancient family: "_So much the worse for you_," said
the peasant, as we ploughmen say, "_the older the seed the worse the
crop_."
* * * * *
At North Ferryby, in Yorkshire, the following very instructive
lines, are inscribed on a handsome tablet to the memory of Sir T.
Etherington, an Alderman of Hull, and late a resident in the above
place:--
"Taught of God we should view losses, sickness, pain, and death,
but as the several trying stages by which a good man, like Joseph,
is conducted from a tent to a court; sin his disease, Christ his
physician, pain his medicine, the Bible his support, the grave his
rest, and death itself an angel expressly sent to relieve the worn out
labourer, or crown the faithful soldier!"
Louis XIV. was presented with an epitaph by an indifferent poet, on
the celebrated Moliere. "I would to God," said he, "that Moliere had
brought me yours."
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