Maitland Club > Works of Sir Thomas Urquhart

OF EPIGRAMS. 41
To know your dying day is nearer now,
Then when you were moll heavily difeafed ;
For to its journey e's end your life ftill goes,
Which cannot flay ; nor How its pace, nor hath
It any Inne to reft in ; toyle, repofe,
Sickneffe and health being alike Heps to death :
Let this thought then your gladneffe mortifie,
That once againe you mull fall ficke and dye.
THAT THE MOST OF OUR CONTENTMENT WHILE WE ARE UPON THE
EARTH, CONSISTETH RATHER IN NEGATIVES, AS NOT TO BE PER-
PLEXED WITH MENTALL PERTURBATIONS, OUTWARD DISEASES,
AND OTHER SUCH LIKE LIFE-TORMENTING CROSSES, THEN IN THE
REALL FRUITION OF ANY POSITIVE DELIGHT THAT CAN BEFALL US.
There being no polhbility that men
Can here enjoy a greater delectation,
Then to poffeffe a body without paine,
And mind untroubled by the meaneft paffion ;
Without delire of further pleafure, health
And a good confcience fliould be our chiefe wealth.
WHY WE MUST ALL DYE.
It being the law of nations to reftore
What we have borrow'd, ther's no remedy ;
But being engaged to a creditor
Who will not lofe his debt, we muft needs dye ;
Nor can we plead one halfe a terme's delay,
For when Death craves it, we are forc'd to pay.
OF THE COVETOUS AND PERVERSE INCLINATION OF THE GREATEST
PART OF MANKIND.
When profit goes with vertue, we rel'pe6l her,
So that her very foot-Heps we adore •,
F