Date: February 22, 1723

"My favours shall deface the memory / Of past afflictions: on a soul secure / In native innocence, or grief or joy / Shou'd make no deeper prints than air retains; / Where fleet alike the vulture and the dove, / And leave no trace."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: February 22, 1723

"We cheat the world / With florid outside 'till we meet surprize; / Then conscience, working inward like a mole, / Crumbles the surface, and reveals the dirt / From which our actions spring."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: February 22, 1723

'Tis in vain to boast / That reason o'er the passions holds the rein, / When quite unman'd with such a tale."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: February 22, 1723

"The balm of sleep / Can ne'er refresh these eyes, 'till the pale hand / Of death shall draw their curtains, and exclude / The busy buzzing swarm of stinging thoughts."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: February 22, 1723

"Heav'ns! at the sight of that celestial face, / Each savage passion from the soul retires; / As wolves forsake the fold, when first the sun / Flames o'er the eastern hills."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: February 22, 1723

"Vouchsafe thy wretched lord a last embrace; / Whose soul is ready wing'd to wait on thine."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)