...some of them labored. One, on the tomb of Gay, written by himself, struck me as too trifling:— '' Life is a jest, and all things show it; I thought so once, and now I know it." The statue of the Bard of Avon holds a scroll in one hand, on which are engraved those beautiful lines...

...despis'c very soul she met here, And now she 's in t'other, she thinks it but queer. MY OWN EPITAPH. LIFE is a jest, and all things show it ; I thought so once, but now I know it. THE END. ...

...sentiments, could have written the following epitaph, and ordered it to be chiseled on his monument ?— "Life is a jest, And all things show it ; I thought so once, But now I know it." Yet there it stands — at once a symbol of death and an abortive attempt at wit,...

...when a lady ‘s in the case, You know all other things give place. ¿Epitaph on Himself. Life ‘sa jest, and all things show it; I thought so once, and now I know it. LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGUE. 1690—1 762. The Lady's Resolve. Let this gi 4 eat maxim be my virtue's...

...uncomfortable amount of awe and veneration, we have a great deal of genuine love. The worthless couplet— " Life is a jest, and all things show it ; I thought so once, but now I know it"— the mere expression of a mood of the poet's mind, should never have been placed...

...Faerie Queene," and not far off is one to the memory of John Gay ; the epitaph written by himself : "Life is a jest, and all things show it,— I thought so once, and now I know it." I passed on to the tomb of Thomson, author of "The Seasons," to that of Gray, of Goldsmith, of Addison,...

...pleasant to have old notions confirmed as often as possible — " Then why go bothering me this way ? " ' Life is a jest, and all things show it; I thought so once, but now I know it' What an ass that fellow must have been who had that put on his tombstone, not to...

...buried in Westminster Abbey, where a monument, bearing the following inscription, is erected :— " Life is a jest, and all things show it; I thought so once; but now I know it. GAT, Of manners gentle, of affections mild; In wit a man; simplicity a child: With...

...this way ? " " Why," said Tom, " it's pleasant to have old notions confirmed as often as possible— ' Life is a jest, and all things show it; I thought so once, but now I know it." He went next to Headier the Curate, and took little by that move; though more than...

...Abraham Cowley, John Dryden, John Gay, author of the " Beggar's Opera," who wrote his own epitaph— " Life is a jest, and all things show it— I thought so once, but now I know it. James Thomson, Oliver Goldsmith, Joseph Addison, Garrick, Sheridan, Southey, Congreve,...