Imatges de pàgina
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of going back to Skelfmore-vale, as we had refolved, my wife would go up to Londen, and pass a few weeks there, and thereabout, before the retired to the mountains. I was

This fpot in Lybia is to this day the fame beautiful and wonderful place; the most charming piece of ground in the world, in the midst of the most horrible defarts; but inftead of Corniger (as Lucan calls Ammon) an African prince name Abu Derar, now reigns there, and his palace ftands where the temple ftood in Alexander's and Cato's time. I faw not long ago a gentleman who had been on the fpot and told me this. He further faid, that this king and his people had been converted to the chriftian religion by an Abyffinian prieft, and had better notions of chriftianity than many of our great divines; for they have not a thought of trinity in unity; nor would they fay, to gain the whole world, what the great Dr. Potter does in one of his fermons, to wit, that whatsoever pain or mifery God himself did fuffer in his human nature: Or as Trapp expreffes himself in his difcourfe on the marriage at Cana, A fweet Smile fat on the face of the great God:-meaning Jefus :-Horrible fayings! O wretched orthodoxy! But they think, without daring to invent and add to the gofpel, that Jefus Chrift was (and was no more than) the Meffias, fent by God for the falvation of mankind.

At what time this Oracle of Jupiter Ammon ceased is not certain. We are fure it was of no reputation in the time of Trajan. All the Oracles ceafed, when men opened their eyes, and laid afide their impertinent credulity. This was the true caufe of the ceffation; though the fathers afçribed it to the coming of the Saviour of the world. It was mere prieftcraft to make money.

I was against it, but her will was my law. We fet out for the Capital, and the first day's journey was delightful; But her fine beaft having met with an accident in the night, by a rope in the ftable, which got. about its foot, cut it deep, and rendered it unable to travel; we took a chariot and four to finish our way; but on driving by the fide of a fteep hill, the horses took fright, ran it down, over came the carriage, and my charmer was killed. This was a difmal scene. She lived about an hour, and repeated the following fine lines from Boiffard, when the faw me weeping as I kneeled on the ground by her ;

Nil profunt lacrumæ, nec poffunt fata moveri : Nec prome queror; hoc morte mihi eft triftius ipfa, Mæror Atimeti conjugis ille mihi, (16)

Juft as the expired, fhe took me by the hand, and with the fpirit of an old Roman, bid me adieu.

Can

(16) Thefe lines from the antiquities of Boiffard, are a real infeription on a tomb in Italy, which this antiquary found in his travels,

Homorea and Atimetus: and the epitaph of Homonea at large.

and copied it as a curiofity to the world. It is to be feen on the monument to this day. Homonaea was a great beauty at the court of the Emperor Honorius,

and

Can you form an idea, Reader, of the distress I was then in? It is not poffible I think, unless you have been exactly in the fame

and married to Atimetus, a courtier and favourite, who preferred her to the most illuftrious of ladies of that time, on account of her extraordinary charms, and uncommon perfections; but she did not long enjoy the honour and happiness she was married into. Before fhe was twenty, death fnatched her away, in the year of the reign of Honorius, A. D. 401, and the following beautiful epitaph was cut on her monument, and remains to this day: I place it here for the entertainment of my readers, and likewise La Fontaine's elegant tranflation of it.

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Homonca's Epitaph.

Si penfare animas finerent crudelia fata,
Et poffet redimi morte aliena falus :
Quantulacunque meæ debentur tempora vitæ
Penfarem pro te, cara Homonca, libens.

At nunc quod poffum, fugiam lucemque deofque,

Ut te matura per ftuga morte fequar.

[Atimetus the husband, is the speaker of thefe fix lines.] Parce tuam conjux fletu quaffare juventam,

Fataque merendo follicitare mea.

Nil profunt lacrumæ, nec poffunt fata moveri.
Viximus: hic omnes exitus. unus habet.

Parce, ita non unquam fimilem experiare dolorem.
Et faveant votis numina cuncta tuis!

Quodque mihi eripuit mors immatura juventæ,
Hoc tibi victuro proroget ulterius.

[Homonca is fupposed to speak thefe eight lines, to her bufband; and then relates her cafe to the traveller, auho is paffing by.]

Та

fame fituation; unless you loved like me, and have been as miferably separated from

as

Tu qui fecura procedis mente parumper Sifte gradum quæfo, verbaque pauca lege. Illa ego quæ claris fueram prælata puellis, Hoc Homonaa brevi condita fum tumulo, Cui formam paphia, et charites, tribuere decorem, Quam Pallus cunctis artibus eruduit. Nondum bis denos ætas compleverat annos, Injecere manus invida fata mihi.

Nec pro me queror; hoc morte mihi est tristius ipsa, Mæror Atimeti conjugis ille mihi.

Sit tibi terra levis, mulier digniffima vitâ Quæque tuis olim perfruerêre bonis.

[Thefe tuo lines may be the words of the Public, or of whoever erected the monument to the memory of Homonca.]

Now fee how finely La Fontaine has done this infcrip

tion into verse.

Si l'on pouvoit donner fes jours pour ceux d'un autre Et que par cet échange on contentat le fort, Quels que foint les momens qui me restent encore Mon ame, avec plaifir, racheteroit la votre. Mais le deftin l'ayant autrement arrété, Je ne fçaurois que fuir les dieux & la clarté, Pour vous fuivre aux enfers d'une mort avancée. Quittez, ô chere epoux, cette trifte pensée, Vous alterez en vain les plus beaux de vos ans: Ceffez de fatiguer par de cris impuiffans, La parque et le destin, deïtez inflexibles. Mettez fin â des pleurs qui ne le touchent point; Je ne fuis plus tout tent â ce fuprême poinct. Ainfi nul accident, par des coups fi fenfibles

Ne

charming a woman. But it was in vain for me to continue lamenting. She was gone for ever, and lay as the clod of the valley before

Ne vienne à l'avenir traverser vos plaifirs!
Ainfi l'Olimpe entier s'accorde à vos defirs!
Veüille enfin atropos, au cours de vôtre vie
Ajoûter l'entendue à la mienne ravire !

Et toy, paffant tranquille, apprens quels font nos maux,
Daigne icy t'arréter un moment a les lire,
Celle qui preferée aux partis les plus hauts,
Sur le ceur d'Atimete acquir un doux empire;
Qui tenoit de venus la beauté de ses traits,
De Pallas fon fçavoir, des graces fes attraits,
Gift fous ce peu d'efpace en la tombe enferrée,
Vingt foleils n'avoient pas ma carriere éclairés,
Le fort jetta fur mois fes envieufes mains;
C'eft Atimete feul qui fait que je m'en plains,
Ma mort m'afflige moins que fa douleur amere.
O femme, que la terre a tes os foit legere ?
Femme digne de vivre; et bientôt puffes-tu
Recommencer de voir les traits de la lumieres,
Et recouvrer le bien que ton ceur a perdu,

Or thus in profe.

S'il fuffifoit aux deftins qu'on donât fa vie pour celle d'un autre, et qu'il fût poffible de racheter ainfi ce que l'on ayme, quelque foit le nombre d'années que les parques m'ont accordé, je le donnerois avec plaifir pour vous tirer de tombeau, ma chere Homonée; mais cela ne fe pouvant, ce que je puis faire eft de fuïr le jour et la prefence de dieux, pour aller bientôt vous suivre le long du Styx.

O mon chere epoux, ceffez de vous affliger; ne corrompez plus le fleurs de vos ans; ne fatiguez plus ma defunée par de plaintes continuëlles; toutes les larmes

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