The merits and defects of the dead by their ingenious secretary Ld [...]-----[...] [graphic].

" A grave-digger (l.) resting on his spade holds out in his left hand a decayed skull towards a skeleton-like man wearing an old-fashioned tie-wig, who is sitting on a rectangular tomb while he leans his right. elbow on another tomb at right angles to his seat. This man holds a scythe in his left hand, a pen in his right. He uses the second tomb as a writing table; an ink-pot stands upon it. His hand rests on two papers inscribed "Marcus Aurelius Servius Tullius . . ." and "Addison - Dr. Swift". From the jaws of the skull held by the grave-digger issue the words,"Life is a jest & all things shew it I thought so once but now I know it." In the foreground are bones and a skull; in the background (l.) a rat scampers away."--British Museum catalogue