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Death's doings : consisting of numerous original compositions, in prose and verse, the friendly contributions of various writers
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1«)

DEATH S DOINGS.

on the pursuit of honours or wealth, his may bemore quietly engaged in admiring the beauties ofan Etruscan vase, or commenting on the form anduse of a lachrymatory :

" Behold I have put thy tears in my bottle.''

Here a passage of scripture is explained,—therea mine of inquiry is sprung, and the ore of the in-telligent and useful revealed.

Antiquarian researches are like vessels of disco-very,—sometimes fraught with the marvellous, atothers laden with cargoes of the richest materials,the produce of every clime and of every shore ; orif these fail, there is matter at hand which, thoughnot of so costly a quality, may by an alchymy (wellknown to the initiated) be converted into a sub-stance more valuable than intrinsically belongedto it. Such are the legendary tales of the oldentime, with their quaint language or grotesque or-naments; beneath whose homely features and rudeaddress arc often concealed some important lesson,some stroke of satire or shrewd research; where,