Images de page
PDF
ePub

52. Such was the foliloquy I fpoke, as I A meditagazed on the skeleton of John Orton; and just tion in the as I had ended, the boys brought in the wild closet. turkey, which they had very ingeniously roasted, and with fome of Mrs. Burcot's fine ale and bread, I had an excellent fupper. The bones of the penitent Orton, I removed to a hole I had ordered my lad to dig for them; the skull excepted, which I kept, and ftill keep on my table, for a memento mori; and that I may never forget the good leffon, which the percipient who once refided in it, had given. It is often the subject of my meditation. When I am alone of an evening, in my clofet, which is often my cafe, I have the skull of John Orton before me, and as I fmoke a philofophic pipe, with my eyes faftened on it, I learn more from the folemn object, than I could from the most philofophical and laboured fpeculations. What a wild and hot head once: how cold and still now; poor skull, I fay: and what was the end all thy daring frolics and gambols thy licentioufnefs and impiety?

A fevere and bitter repentance. In piety and goodness John Orton found at laft that

and in us all; within us, as well as without us; and
therefore, in the hearts of the faithful, he must be con-
fidered, as an immenfe, intellectual, pure light, ready to
enlighten and enliven them, and to fhed forth the bright
beams of his love upon them. I imagine this illuftrates
the thing. To me it feems reason.
X 4

happi

An inventtory of the goods of

happiness the world could not give him. There is no real felicity for man, but in reforming all his errors and vices, and entring upon a ftrict and conftant courfe of virtue. This only makes life comfortable; renders death ferene and peaceful; and fecures eternal joy and bleffedness hereafter. Such are the lef fons I extract from the skull of John Orton. 53. When I had fupped, I went about, to fee what things Mr. Orton had left behind John Orton, him in his little cottage, and I found a field bed-stead large enough for two, with a mattrafs, filk blankets, quilt, and cotton curtains; two oak ftools, and a strong square table of the fame wood. An oak fettee, on which his bones lay; a filver lamp to burn oil in a tinder-box and matches; a cafe of razors; fix handfome knives and forks in a cafe; half a dozen china plates, two china difhes; and two pint mugs of the fame ware; half a dozen drinking-glaffes, a large copper kettle, a brafs fkillet, two filver spoons, and a filver ladle; in a cheft were clothes and linnen, fhoes and ftockings, and various ufeful matters. There were pens, ink, and paper in a writing-desk, and half a score guineas; and on a fhelf over it, a dozen good books; three of which were, a large English bible, Thomas a Kempis, and Sir Walter Raleigh's hiftory of the world: under the fhelf hung a plain gold watch, and a large ring fun-dial. In a dark

clofet,

clofet, I found a box of fea-biskets, many flasks of oil for eating, and jars of it for the lamp; honey, falt, and vinegar; four dozen of quart bottles of meath, and two stone bottles, that held three gallons each, full of brandy: this I fuppofe was against the days of weakness or fickness. He had not used a pint of this liquor.

Having found these things within doors, I proceeded from the house to the garden, which lay at a small diftance from the little thatched manfion, and contained about four acres; it had been very beautifully laid out, and filled with the best fruit-trees, and all the vegetables: but it was run to ruin and high weeds, and fhewed that its owner had been long dead. I fuppofe he died foon after the date of his paper; for, I obferved, that many prior dates had been ftruck out; and had he lived after the year 1701, he would in all probability, have razed that likewife, and fet down 1702. Some fudden fickness must have seized him; and perhaps, when he found himself finking, he laid himfelf out naked on the wooden couch where I found his fkeleton. I can no otherwise account for his having no kind of covering over him. As to his bones being fo clean, that to be fure was performed by the ants. I took notice of many nefts here of the larger ants, in holes under the roots of great trees.

That

314

That the pifmires are the best preparers of a fkeleton is not only certain from the account the miffionaries give of the coming on of the ants in Pegu; when in one night's time, the vast swarms of them that approach, reduce every human creature they can faften on to clean bones; which makes the people fet fire to their habitations, when they have notice given them by a kind of small monkey they keep for the purpose of the motion of this terrible enemy: but it is plain from what I have often experimented.

When I want to make a fkeleton of any finall animal, I put the dead creature in a box with holes in it among the ants, in their habitations, or nefts, or in fuch parts of the houfe as a whole tribe will often march to, through feveral rooms, in one track or certain road, to eat fugar or fweatmeats they have discovered, and then in two or three days, they will perform what the finest knife cannot execute. The big ants, which are larger than a common house fly, and are feldom lefs than fix thousand in a neft, will clear the bones of a rat in half a night's time.

There was a pretty little wooden fummerhoufe in the centre of the garden, and in it had been in pots fome curious plants and flowers. Here were various tools, and many inftruments of gardening. It appeared from

them,

[ocr errors]

them, and the great variety of things in the
ground, that Mr. Orton must have used
himself to hard labour, and found great
pleasure in his improvements and produc-
tions. There was a deal of art and ingenuity
to be traced in the wild wilderness the garden
was grown into. It was plain from a book,
called the Carthufian Gardener, which lay on
a table in the fummer-house, that he had made
that business his ftudy. Round this summer-
house were the remains of many hives on
benches, but the bees were all gone, and the
ftock ruined.

54. All these things, and the place, fet A fcheme. me a thinking, and foon fuggested to my fancy, that in my condition, I could not do better than fucceed Mr. Orton on the premiffes; but, without turning hermit. Here is (I faid) a pretty fmall thatched manfion, that might easily be enlarged, if more rooms were wanting; and a garden, which labour would foon reftore to its usefulness and beauty, and make it produce the beft vegetables in plenty. Here is fish in the waters, fowl of every kind, and deer on the mountains. Here are goats in great herds, for milk, for kids, and when cut, for excellent venifon. Here is the finest water, and by getting bees, as Mr. Orton had, meath may be made that will be equal to the best foreign wine. As to the fituation, it is moft delightful. No

« PrécédentContinuer »