But many are too early old, and
before the date of age. Adversity stretcheth our days,
misery makes Alcmena's nights,* and time hath no
wings unto it. But the most tedious being is that which
can unwish itself, content to be nothing, or never to
have been, which was beyond the malcontent of Job,
who cursed not the day of his life, but his nativity; con-
tent to have so far been, as to have a title to future being,
although he had lived here but in an hidden state of
life, and as it were an abortion.
What song the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles
assumed when he hid himself among women, though
puzzling questions,+ are not beyond all conjecture. What
time the persons of these ossuaries entered the famous
nations of the dead, and slept with princes and coun-
sellors, might admit a wide solution. But who were
the proprietaries of these bones, or what bodies these
ashes made up, were a question above antiquarism; not
to be resolved by man, nor easily perhaps by spirits,
except we consult the provincial guardians, or tutelary
observators.
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