The Artist's Repository, Or, Encyclopedia of the Fine Arts (Band 1): The Human Figure (London, 1808)

eec. ix.] character of the figure. 235

cause man departeth to his long home, and the
mourners go about the streets. The silver cord (the
spinal marrow) is loosed, the golden bowl (the skull)
is broken, the pitcher at the fountain is destroyed
(the larger vessels, aorta, &c.) ; the wheel at the
cistern (the heart and its motions; systole and diastole)
is ruined ; the dust returns to its origin, the earth ;
the spirit to the Author who imparted it.

Thus have we closed the history of life, and thus
we close the article character : we lay down in the
silent tomb the mortal part of our nature, and await
that reviviscence which we are taught to expect i
what may be the character of the bodies we shall
be favored with when we are again called to inhabit
such vehicles, we cannot say : it is enough for us to
conclude, from the benevolent omnipotence of their
Author, that they will be every way fit for our ha-
bitation ; and every way worthy the power, the dig-
nity, and the kindness, which has prepared them for
us.

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