PLATE XXXVI.—THE HUSBANDMAN.
Were Death capable of considerations, what class of society would better deserve to be exempted from his ravages, than the labourers; incontestably the most useful, most laborious, and most productive of real opulence? But he is now striking the horses harnessed to this Husbandman’s plough; and this enemy of the human race can strike no blow more severely felt, than by thus attacking it in the source of its subsistence.
In sudore vultus tui vesceris pane tuo. Gen. iii. 19.
PLANCHE XXXVI.—LE LABOUREUR.
Si la Mort pouvoit user de quelque considération, quelle classe de la société mériteroit mieux d’en être ménagée que celle du laboureur, sans contredit la plus utile, la plus laborieuse, & la plus productive des véritables richesses? Mais elle frappe déjà les chevaux attelés à la charrue de ce Cultivateur, & cette ennemie du genre humain ne sauroit lui porter des coups plus sensibles qu’en l’attaquant dans les sources de sa subsistance.
PLATE XXXVII.—THE MISER.
The character of the Miser is very forcibly expressed in this sketch. Shut up in a vault, which receives the light only through a wicket, secured with a double grate of thick iron bars, he is entirely taken up with his beloved treasure, a considerable part whereof Death is snatching up before his eyes. This loss excites in him all the symptoms of the most violent desperation, and it plainly appears that his gold is an hundred times dearer to his heart than his life.