University of Virginia Library

13.

Flatt'ry and fame at death the Vain forsake,
And other knaves and fools their honours take .
 

“There is no work that shews more art and industry than the texture of a spider's web. The delicate threads are so nicely disposed, and so curiously interwoven one with another, that you would think it produced by the labour of a celestial Being; yet nothing in the event is more fragil and insubstantial. A breath of wind tears it to pieces, and carries it away. Just so are worldly acquisitions made by men in exalted stations, and reputedly wise and cunning.” Origen.