Emblems of Mortality; representing, in upwards of fifty cuts, death seizing all ranks and degrees of people

The COUNTESS.

Reading edition

They spend their Days in Wealth, and in a Moment go down to the Grave.

Job xxi. 13.

Illustration from Emblems of Mortality; representing, in upwards of fifty cuts, death seizing all ranks and degrees of people

In num’rous Joys their rapid Life The thoughtless Virgins waste, And ev’ry Kind of Pleasure seek With Eagerness to taste. From Cares and Sorrow they are free, No Thought their Minds to tire, A vacant Life, full fraught with Bliss, They earnestly desire. But in the Grave they shall be laid, By Death’s all-piercing Dart, Where he their Pleasures exquisite Shall into Grief convert.