The Plague of Athens, which hapned in the second year of the Peloponnesian Warre / First described in Greek by Thucydides; then in Latin by Lucretius. Now attempted in English

by Thomas Sprat; Thomas Hobbes; Thucydides

Of our own Nature turn to Dust,

When Leaves and Fruit must fall;

But are expos’d to mighty Tempests too,

Which do at once what that would slowlie do,

Which throw down Fruit and Tree of Life withal.

From ruine we in vain

Our bodies by repair maintain,

Bodies compos’d of stuff,

Mouldring and frail enough;

Yet from without as well we fear