From _Of the Diseases of the Mind and the Body_: translated from Maximus Tyrius (1651). 1. [ARIPHRON.] O health, the chief of gifts divine! I would I might with thee and thine Live all those days appointed mine! From _The Mount of Olives_ (1652). 1. [DEATH.] Draw near, fond man, and dress thee by this glass, Mark how thy bravery and big looks must pass Into corruption, rottenness and dust; The frail supporters which betray'd thy trust. O weigh in time thy last and loathsome state! To purchase heav'n for tears is no hard rate. Our glory, greatness, wisdom, all we have, If mis-employ'd, but add hell to the grave: Only a fair redemption of evil times Finds life in death, and buries all our crimes. 2. [HADRIAN'S ADDRESS TO HIS SOUL.] My soul, my pleasant soul, and witty, The guest and consort of my body. Into what place now all alone Naked and sad wilt thou be gone? No mirth, no wit, as heretofore, Nor jests wilt thou afford me more. 3. [PAULINUS. CARM. APP. I. 35-40.] What is't to me that spacious rivers run Whole ages, and their streams are never done? Those still remain: but all my fathers died, And I myself but for few days abide. 4. [ANEURIN. ENGLYNION Y MISOEDD, III. 1-4.] In March birds couple, a new birth Of herbs and flow'rs breaks through the earth; But in the grave none stirs his head, Long is the impris'ment of the dead. 5. [INCERTI.] So our decays God comforts by The stars' concurrent state on high. 6. [JUVENAL. SATIRE XIII. 86-8.] There are that do believe all things succeed By chance or fortune: and that nought's decreed By a divine, wise Will; but blindly call Old Time and Nature rulers over all. 7. [INCERTI.] From the first hour the heavens were made Unto the last, when all shall fade, Count--if thou canst--the drops of dew, The stars of heav'n and streams that flow, The falling snow, the dropping show'rs, And in the month of May, the flow'rs, Their scents and colours, and what store Of grapes and apples Autumn bore, How many grains the Summer bears, What leaves the wind in Winter tears; Count all the creatures in the world, The motes which in the air are hurl'd, The hairs of beasts and mankind, and The shore's innumerable sand, The blades of grass, and to these last Add all the years which now are past, With those whose course is yet to come, And all their minutes in one sum. When all is done, the damned's state Outruns them still, and knows no date. 8. [VIRGIL. GEORGICS, IV. 12-138.]