The mourning-ring, in memory of your departed friend ...

Another on the Frontispiece.

SEest thou, frail Man, the Emblem of thy State? Th' exact Idea of thy hasting Fate? The Figure's drawn to th' Life, yea ev'ry part Is grac'd and deckt with more than Zeuxian Art: The first Scene shows when Man's laid out for dead, When th' sprightly Soul from the Body's gone and fled: His mournful Friends no longer can endure The lifeless Corps, therefore they do immure And shut it close up in a Sable Hearse, As totally unfit for all Commerce: O're which they showre such store of tears that they Mourning, exhaust their Moisture and decay. With sorrow-wounded Hearts they sob and cry Themselves to death, they take their turns to die Because one's death from th' other draws such grief, As kills the Soul in spight of all relief:

Next is he brought on Shoulders of his friends Along the Streets, where dismally attends A Croud of Mourners to the Church, where they Are twice fore-told, and warn'd they are but Clay: First by the words of th' Preacher, and then next The Corps tho' tacitly) repeats the Text: But lo the End's more dismal than the rest, Which brings the final Consummatum est: Earth now is laid to Earth, and Dust to Dust, Earth ope's its Mouth, the Coffin stop it must. This is the Lot of all, none can it flee: Earth's not quite full, there's room yet left for thee.

Sic raptim Scripsit H. C.