<p>When some, in former Ages, had a meaning<lb/> An Emblem, of Mortality, to make,<lb/> They form'd an Infant, on a Deaths-head leaning,<lb/> And, round about, encircled with a Snake.<lb/> The Childe so pictur'd, was to signifie,<lb/> That, from our very Birth, our Dying springs;<lb/> The Snake, her Taile devouring, doth implie<lb/> The Revolution, of all Earthly things.<lb/> For, whatsoever hath beginning, here,<lb/> Beginnes, immediately, to vary from<lb/> The same it was; and, doth at last appeare<lb/> What very few did thinke it should become.<lb/> The solid Stone, doth molder into Earth,<lb/> That Earth, e're long, to Water, rarifies;<lb/> That Water, gives an Airy Vapour birth,<lb/> And, thence, a Fiery-Comet doth arise:<lb/> That, moves, untill it selfe it so impaire,<lb/> That from a burning-Meteor, backe againe,<lb/> It sinketh downe, and thickens into Aire;<lb/> That Aire, becomes a Cloud; then, Drops of Raine:<lb/> Those Drops, descending on a Rocky Ground,<lb/> There, settle into Earth, which more and more,<lb/> Doth harden, still; so, running out the round,<lb/> It growes to be the Stone it was before.<lb/> Thus, All things wheele about; and, each Beginning,<lb/> Made entrance to it owne Destruction, hath.<lb/> The Life of Nature, entreth in with Sinning;<lb/> And, is for ever, wayted on by Death:<lb/> The Life of Grace, is form'd by Death to Sinne;<lb/> And, there, doth Life-eternall, straight beginne.<lb/> </p>

embstma_1903_emblem044

45

embstma_1903

emblem pictura

emblempictura

embstma_1903_emblem046

GUL

EMBLEMS

ILL_BOOK

Encircled by a serpent biting its own tail (ouroboros), a boy sits on the ground, holding on a skull

embstma_1903.xml

embstma_1903_fac045

<p>FINIS AB ORIGINE PENDET.</p>

GUL

EMBLEMS

ILL_BOOK

11R71

23A21

25H114

25I22

31A25314

31D11221(+52)

31E

31F11

42A2

51F5

51FF5

86(FINIS AB ORIGINE PENDET)

<p>As soone, as wee to bee, begunne;<lb/> We did beginne, to be Vndone.</p>

embstma_1903_pic045.jpg

embstma_1903_emblem045

Finis ab origine pendet