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EPITAPH.
HERE continueth to rot
The body of FRANCIS CHARTRES;
Who, with an inflexible constancy,
and inimitable uniformity of life,
persisted,
In spite of age and infirmities,
In the practice of every human vice,
Excepting prodigality and hypocrisy:
His insatiable avarice exempted him from the first;
His matchless impudence from the second.
Nor was he more singular in the undeviating pravity
of his manners, than successful in accumulating
wealth:
For, without trade or profession,
Without trust of publick money,
And without bribe-worthy service,
He acquired, or more properly created,
a ministerial estate.
He was the only person of his time,
Who could cheat without the mask of honesty;
Retain his primeval meanness when possessed of
ten thousand a year;
And, having daily deserved the gibbet for what he did,
Was at last condemned to it for what he could
not do.
