Whate'er the great confer upon her, They're honour'd by it while they honour. Of old, Olympus and Parnassus In friendship heaved their sky-crown'd masses. [17] Phaedrus, IV. 24. [18] _Malherbe_.--See note to Fable I., Book III. XV.--DEATH AND THE UNFORTUNATE.[19] A poor unfortunate, from day to day, Call'd Death to take him from this world away. 'O Death' he said, 'to me how fair thy form! Come quick, and end for me life's cruel storm.' Death heard, and with a ghastly grin, Knock'd at his door, and enter'd in 'Take out this object from my sight!' The poor man loudly cried. 'Its dreadful looks I can't abide; O stay him, stay him' let him come no nigher; O Death! O Death! I pray thee to retire!' A gentleman of note In Rome, Maecenas,[20] somewhere wrote:-- "Make me the poorest wretch that begs, Sore, hungry, crippled, clothed in rags, In hopeless impotence of arms and legs; Provided, after all, you give The one sweet liberty to live: I'll ask of Death no greater favour Than just to stay away for ever." [19] Aesop. [20] _Maecenas_.--Seneca's Epistles, CI. XVI.--DEATH AND THE WOODMAN.[21] A poor wood-chopper, with his fagot load, Whom weight of years, as well as load, oppress'd, Sore groaning in his smoky hut to rest, Trudged wearily along his homeward road. At last his wood upon the ground he throws, And sits him down to think o'er all his woes. To joy a stranger, since his hapless birth, What poorer wretch upon this rolling earth? No bread sometimes, and ne'er a moment's rest; Wife, children, soldiers, landlords, public tax, All wait the swinging of his old, worn axe, And paint the veriest picture of a man unblest. On Death he calls. Forthwith that monarch grim Appears, and asks what he should do for him. 'Not much, indeed; a little help I lack-- To put these fagots on my back.' Death ready stands all ills to cure; But let us not his cure invite. Than die, 'tis better to endure,-- Is both a manly maxim and a right. [21] Aesop: it is also in Corrozet's fables. XVII.--THE MAN BETWEEN TWO AGES, AND HIS TWO MISTRESSES.[22]