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KOSMOBREVIA[Greek], or the infancy of the world

With an Appendix of Gods resting day, Edon Garden; Mans Happiness before, Misery after, his Fall. Whereunto is added, The Praise of Nothing; Divine Ejaculations; The four Ages of the world; The Birth of Christ; Also a Century of Historical Applications; With a Taste of Poetical fictions. Written some years since by N. B.[i.e. Nicholas Billingsley] ... And now published at the request of his Friends

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20 On the Fates.

20 On the Fates.

Th' inexorable Parce, borne of Hell,
And night, three Sisters were assign'd to dwell
Within a pitchy cavern; nature bindes
Their souls in peacefull union: Clothe windes
Flax on the Distaste, and the thred of life
Is spun by Lachesis, the fatal knife
Of Atropos divideth it in twain,
Which done it cannot be conjoyn'd againe.
The Series of things, Jupiter's scribes
Will not divert, no, for a world of bribes:
Cresus his store, the wealth that Midas treasur'd,
Cannot prorogue the life that they have measur'd:
Th'intreats of virtue, nor the threats of vice,
Melts them to mercy; neither prayer nor price
Wring out compassion, no fire can thaw
Their frozen hearts, nor can affliction draw
Their thoughts to pitty, they regard no m nes,
Nor thunder of ingemenated groanes.

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Noe stormy sighs, nor silent-pleading tears,
Can force the rocky portals of their ears;
They'r cloath'd in white, haveing their temples crown'd
An Adamantine distaffe held, which round
The spacious orb encircled, their extent
And solid stableness, thereby was meant.
By these three Fates is understood, by some,
Time past, time present, and the time to come.