Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
I go the way of all the earth - I am dying. All the inhabitants of the earth must come to the dust. In life, some follow one occupation, some another; but all must, sooner or later, come to the grave. Death is no respecter of persons; he visits the palace of the king as well as the cottage of the peasant.
Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas,
Regumque turres . -
Hor. Odar. lib. i., od. iv., ver. 13.
"With equal pace, impartial fate
Knocks at the palace as the cottage gate."
Francis.
- Sed omnes una manet nox,
Et calcanda semel via lethi . -
Ib. od. xxviii., ver. 15.
"One dreary night for all mankind remains,
And once we all must tread the shadowy plains."
Ibid.
There is no respect to age or youth more than to station or external circumstance: -
Mixta senum ac juvenum densantur funera: nullum
Saeva caput Proserpina fugit .
Ib. od. xxviii., ver. 19.
Thus age and youth promiscuous crowd the tomb;
No mortal head can shun the impending doom."
Ibid.
And it is not merely man that is subjected to this necessity; all that have in them the breath of life must lose it; it is the way of all the earth, both of men and inferior animals.
- Terrestria quando Mortales animas vivunt sortita,
neque ulla est Aut parvo aut magno lethi fuga.
Vive memor quam sis aevi brevis .
Hor. Sat. l. ii., s. vi., ver. 93.
"All that tread the earth are subject to mortality;
neither great nor small can avoid death.
Live therefore conscious that your time is short."
It is painful to the pride of the great and mighty that, however decorated their tombs may be, they must undergo the same dissolution and corruption with the vulgar dead; for the grave is the house appointed for all living: man is born to die.
Omnium idem exitus est, sed et idem domicilium .
\ri720 "For all have the same end, and are huddled together in the same narrow house."
Here emperors, kings, statesmen, warriors, heroes, and butchers of all kinds, with peasants and beggars, meet; however various their routes, they terminate in the same point. This and all other kindred sentiments on the subject are well expressed in that excellent little poem of Mr. Blair, entitled "The Grave," which opens with the following lines: -
\ri720 While some affect the sun, and some the shade; Some flee the city, some the hermitage; Their aims as various as the roads they take In journeying through life; the task be mine To paint the gloomy horrors of the tomb, The appointed place of rendezvous, where all These travelers meet.
Show thyself a man - Act like a rational being, and not like a brute; and remember, that he acts most like a man who is most devoted to his Good.
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