last Day's great Sun shall gild the Skies,
Then he shall from his Tomb get up and rise.
Be merry while thou can'st: for surely thou
Shall shortly be as sad as he is now.
 
The Words are almost out of the Stone with Antiquity. But it is needless to
observe, that Andrew here is writ without an s, and is besides a Christian Name.
My Friend moreover conjectures this to have been the Founder of that Sect of
laughing Philosophers, since called Merry Andrews.
    To wave therefore a Circumstance, which, tho' mentioned in conformity to the
exact Rules of Biography, is not greatly material; I proceed to things of more
consequence. Indeed it is sufficiently certain, that he had as many Ancestors,
as the best Man living; and perhaps, if we look five or six hundred Years
backwards, might be related to some Persons of very great Figure at present,
whose Ancestors within half the last Century are buried in as great Obscurity.
But suppose for Argument's sake we should admit that he had no Ancestors at all,
but had sprung up, according to the modern Phrase, out of a Dunghill, as the
Athenians pretended they themselves did from the Earth, would not this 1
Autokopros have been justly entitled to all the Praise arising from his own
Virtues? Would it not be hard, that a Man who hath no Ancestors should therefore
be render'd incapable of acquiring Honour, when we see so many who have no
Virtues, enjoying the Honour of their Forefathers? At ten Years old (by which
Time his Education was advanced to Writing and Reading) he was bound an
Apprentice, according to the Statute, to Sir Thomas Booby, an Uncle of Mr.
Booby's by the Father's side. Sir Thomas having then an Estate in his own hands,
the young Andrews was at first employed in what in the Country they call keeping
Birds. His Office was to perform the Part the Antients assigned to the God
Priapus, which Deity the Moderns call by the Name of Jack-o'-Lent: but his Voice
being so extremely musical, that it rather allured the Birds than terrified
them, he was soon transplanted from the Fields into the Dog-kennel, where he was
placed under the Huntsman, and made what Sportsmen term a Whipper-in. For this
Place likewise the Sweetness of his Voice disqualified him: the Dogs preferring
the Melody of his chiding to all the alluring Notes of the Huntsman, who soon
became so incensed at it, that he desired Sir Thomas to provide otherwise for
him;