Can you form an idea, Reader, of the distress I was then in? It is not possible I think unless you Tu qui secura procedis mente parumper Nondum bis denos ætas compleverat annos, Nec pro me queror; hoc morte mihi est tristius ipsa, Sit tibi terra levis, mulier dignissima vitâ (These two lines may be the words of the Public, or of whoever erected the monument to the memory of Homonoa. Now see how finely La Fontaine has done this inscription into verse. Si l'on pouvoit donner ses jours pour ceux d'un autre Et que par cet échange on contentat le sort, Quels que soint les momens qui me restent encore Mon ame, avec plaisir, racheteroit la votre. VOL. III. Ꭶ have been exactly in the same situation; unless you loved like me, and have been as miserably separated Cessez de fatiguer par de cris impuissans, La parque et le destin, deïtez inflexibles. Et toy, passant tranquille, apprens quels sont nos maux, Or thus in prose. S'il suffisoit aux destins qu'on donât sa vie pour celle from as charming a woman. But it was in vain for me to continue lamenting. She was gone for d'un autre, et qu'il fût possible de racheter ainsi ce que l'on ayme, quelque soit le nombre d'années que les parques m'ont accordé, je le donnerois avec plaisir pour vous tirer de tombeau, ma chere Homonée; mais cela ne se pouvant, ce que je puis faire est de fuïr le jour et la presence de dieux, pour aller bientôt vous suivre le long du Styx. 1 O mon chere epoux, cessez de vous affliger; ne corrompez plus le fleurs de vos ans; ne fatiguez plus ma destinée par de plaintes continuëlles: toutes les larmes sont icy vaines; on ne sauroit émouvoir la parque: me voila morte, chacun arrive à ce terme la. Cessez donc encore un fois ainsi puissiez-vous ne sentir jamais une semblable douleur! Ainsi tous les dieux soient favorable a vos souhaits! Et veüille la parque ajoûter a vôtre vie ce qu'elle a ravi à la mienne. Et toy qui passes tranquillement, arreté icy je te prie un moment ou deux, afin de lire ce peu de mots. Moy, cette Homonée que preferra Atimete a de filles considerables; moy a qui Venus donna la beauté, les graces et les agrémens; que Pallas enfin avoit instruite dans tous les arts, me voilà icy renfermée dans un monument de peu d'espace. Je n'avois pas encore vingt ans quand le sort jetta ses mains envieuses sur ma perCe ne❜st pas pour moy que je m'en plains, c'est pour mon mari, de qui la douleur m'est plus difficile à supporter que ma propre mort. sonne. ever, and lay as the clod of the valley before me. Her body I deposited in the next church-yard, and Que la terre te soit legere, ô épouse digne de retourner à la vie, et de recouvrer un jour que tu a perdu ! The legend on the monument of Homonoa, translated into English. Atimetus. If it was allowed to lay down one's life for another, and possible by such means, to save what we loved from the grave, whatever length of days was allotted me, I would with pleasure offer up my life, to get my Homonca from the tomb; but as this cannot be done, what is in my power I will do, fly from the light of heaven, and follow you to the realms of lasting night. Homonaa. My dearest Atimetus, cease to torment your unhappy mind, nor let grief thus feed on your youth, and make life bitterness itself. I am gone in the way appointed for all the mortal race all must be numbered with the dead. And since fate is inexorable, and tears are in vain, weep not for me, once more I conjure you. But may you be ever happy, may Providence preserve you, and add to your life those years which have been taken from mine. The person who erected the monument to the memory of Homonca. Stop, traveller, for a few minutes, and ponder on these lines. immediately after, rode as fast as I could to London, to lose thought in dissipation, and resign the better to the decree. For some days I lived at the inn I set up at, but as soon as I could, went into a lodging, and it happened to be at the house of the Here lies Homonoa, whom Atimitus preferred to the greatest and most illustrious women of his time. She had the form of Venus, the charms of the graces; and an understanding and sensibility, which demonstrated that wisdom had given to an angel's form, a mind more lovely. Before she was twenty, she was dissolved. And as she had practised righteousness, by carrying it well to those about her, and to all that were specially related, she parted with them, as she had lived with them, in justice and charity, in modesty and submission, in thankfulness and peace. Filled with divine thoughts, inured to contemplate the perfections of God, and to acknowledge his providence in all events, she died with the humblest resignation to the divine will, and was only troubled that she left her husband a mourner. Excellent Homonca. May the earth lie light upon thee, and in the morning of the resurrection, may you awake again to life, and rise to that immortality and glory, which God, the righteous Judge, will give to true worth and dignity; as rewards to a life adorned with all virtues and excellencies, the dikaiomata, that is, the righteous acts of the Saints. |