In such green palaces the first kings reignd, Slept in their shades, and angels entertaind; With such old counsellors they did advise, And by frequenting sacred groves grew wise.
The souls dark cottage, batterd and decayd, Lets in new light through chinks that Time has made.2 Stronger by weakness, wiser men become As they draw near to their eternal home: Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view That stand upon the threshold of the new.
Drawing near her death, she sent most pious thoughts as harbingers to heaven; and her soul saw a glimpse of happiness through the chinks of her sickness-broken body.
To vanish in the chinks that Time has made.Samuel Rogers: Pæstum. [back]
Note 3. A fiery soul, which, working out its way, Fretted the pigmy-body to decay, And oer-informd the tenement of clay. John Dryden: Absalom and Achitophel, part i. line 156. [back]