The Virginia Gazette

An anatomical EPITAPH on an Invalid, written by himself.

HERE lies an head that often ach'd,
Here lie two hands that always shak'd;
Here lies a brain of odd conceit,
Here lies an heart that often beat;
Here lie two eyes that daily wept,
And in the night but seldom slept;
Here lies a tongue that whining talk'd,
Here lie two feet that feebly walk'd;
Here lie the midriff and the breast
With loads of indigestion prest:
Here lies the liver, full of bile,
That ne'er secreted proper chyle;
Here lie the bowels, human tripes,
Tortur'd with wind and twisting gripes;
Here lies that livid drab, the spleen,
The source of life's sad tragic scene,
That left side weight that clogs the blood
And stagnates nature's circling flood!
Here lie the nerves, so often twitch'd
with painful cramps and poignant stitch:
Here lies the back, oft rack'd with pains,
Coroding kidneys, loins, and reins;
Here lies the skin per scurvy fed,
With pimples and eruptions red.
Here lies the man, from top to toe,
That fabric fram'd for pain and woe;
He catch'd a cold, but colder death
Compress'd his lungs, and stopt his breath:
The organs could no longer go,
Because the bellows ceas'd to blow
Thus I direct this honest friend,
Who ne'er till death was at wit's end
For want of spirits ere he fell,
With higher spirits let him dwell,
In future state of peace and love,
Where just men's perfect spirits move.