University of Virginia Library

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899

STANZA'S In Imitation of Horace, Lib. II. Ode XIV.

I

Ah! no, 'tis all in vain, believe me 'tis
This Pious Artifice.
Not all these Pray'rs and Alms can buy
One Moment tow'rd Eternity.
Eternity! that boundless Race,
Which Time himself can never run:
(Swift, as he flies, with an unweary'd Pace,)
Which, when ten thousand, thousand Years are done,
Is still the same, and still to be begun.
Fix'd are those Limits, which prescribe
A short Extent to the most lasting Breath;

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900

And tho' thou cou'dst for Sacrifice lay down
Millions of other Lives to save thy own,
'Twere fruitless all; not all would bribe
One Supernumerary Gasp from Death.

II

In vain's thy inexhausted Store
Of Wealth, in vain thy Pow'r;
Thy Honours, Titles, all must fail,
Where Piety it self can nought avail.
The Rich, the Great, the Innocent and Just,
Must all be huddled to the Grave,
With the most Vile and Ignominious Slave,
And undistinguish'd lye in Dust.
In vain the Fearful flies Alarms,
In vain he is secure from Wounds of Arms,
In vain avoids the faithless Seas,
And is confin'd to Home and Ease,
Bounding his Knowledge, to extend his Days.
In vain are all those Arts we try,
All our Evasions, and Regret to die:

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901

From the Contagion of Mortality,
No Clime is pure, no Air is free:
And no Retreat
Is so Obscure, as to be hid from Fate.

III

Thou must, alas! thou must, my Friend;
(The very Hour thou now dost spend
In studying to avoid, brings on thy End)
Thou must forego the dearest Joys of Life;
Leave the warm Bosom of thy tender Wife,
And all the much-lov'd Off-spring of her Womb,
To moulder in the cold Embraces of a Tomb.
All must be left, and all be lost;
Thy House, whose stately Structure so much cost,
Shall not afford
Room for the stinking Carkass of its Lord.
Of all thy pleasant Gardens, Grots and Bow'rs,
Thy costly Fruits, thy far-fetch'd Plants and Flow'rs,
Nought shalt thou save;
Or but a Sprig of Rosemary shalt have,
To wither with thee in the Grave:

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902

The rest shall live and flourish, to upbraid
Their Transitory Master Dead.