Sophron. allowed a longer existence: vice and immorality will render our old age despicable to others and afflicting to ourselves; and make us the more uneasy to quit the stage of life, as we draw nearer the dire necessity. So that the grand rule to attain a happy old age, as well as a happy death, is to "live well;" is to live, as becomes those who bear the solemn name of Christians, and profess the sacred name of Christ. Uncertain as is the tenure of human life, this rule, one would conceive, should be universally regarded. For how few, how very few of the myriads of mortals, who tread this faithless earth, arrive at old age, or see the present boundary of human life, the seventieth year ! What numbers before that age are consigned to a state eternal and unalterable! alarming thought!—And canst thou, oh reader, promise thyself this length of days! Knowest thou how long thy line shall run? Knowest thou, when the mighty Master shall call, and thou must appear before his impartial tribunal? Alas, human fate is mantled in thick darkness! But eternity-who like AGRICOLA, would be utterly unprepared, since the call Haustulus! may come instantly; and then how terrible the consequences! But AGRICOLA's fate was peculiar.-So thought his neighbour HAUSTULUS. He saw the singed corpse of AGRICOLA borne from the field; shook his head, declared the stroke a judgment from Heaven, and enlarged greatly on the demerits of the deceased ;—yet he forgot himself. HAUSTULUS was the pride of the village where he lived: young, healthy, robust; the maidens beheld him with pleasure; the young men heard of his perfections with envy. A lively goodnature recommended him universally; and relying on the strength of his constitution, he was the first and last at every merriment, at every wake, at every scene of rural pleasantry and joy. Drinking too deep at one of these, and staying too late from home, he caught a cold; a violent fever ensued; he became delirious; all hopes in a few days were lost; and he, who had never employed one serious hour about his soul, thus plunged-a hapless improvident-into a state everlasting!Was his fate peculiar? was his death sudden ?It is a death, it is a fate every day exemplified.And would you choose to share such a fate; to Haustulus. die such a death? Surely no: then be careful not to lead such a life. For there are innumerable ontlets from this present scene; lightnings and fevers are not the only instruments in the hand of God: the meanest and most inconsiderable agent is all-sufficient with him to stop the throbbing heart, and to draw the veil of death over the closing eyes. The Great. CHAPTER XII. Woe then apart (if woe apart can be The gay, rich, great, triumphant, and august, What are they? the MOST happy (strange to say!) YOUNG. THOUGH Death levels all distinctions, and pays no more deference to the crown, than to the unnoticed head of the meanest peasant, yet the great seem willing to preserve, even in death, that distinction which they have shared in life; and therefore refuse to mix their social dust with common and inferior clay. There may be a propriety in this; subordination is absolutely neces G Nobleman's Vault. sary and it may be decent, that they who have been elevated in life, should, at the close of it, still keep up their due dignity. But this will not prevent us from meditating in the vault of the nobles; where surely we shall find ample matter for conversation. By the side of the church where first I was led into these Reflections, such a vault is found. Let me descend into the solemn and sacred recess ! How awful! As I tread slowly down the stone steps, which lead into it, a melancholy murmur seems to echo through the silent mansion; the moon just throws in a faint light, sufficient for me to discern the contents (though indeed no stranger to them) and all my soul thrills with anxious horror!-Whence this strange and uncommon dread upon us, when conversing with the deceased? Helpless dust and ashes as they are, we know they cannot harm or injure us. Nay, and were it possible for any of them to appear to us, surely it would be most delightful and most acceptable to view them, and to hear from them some of the wonders of that world, which is at once so interesting, and so much unknown! |