Excerpt from Godfrey Malvern, or the Life of an Author Within a country churchyard, which stood upon the gentle slope of a green hill-side, -its summit crowned with a grey, old, and weather beaten church, - stood a young man dressed in deep mourning; his forehead half buried in the palm of his hand, while his elbow rested on the top of a tall gravestone. The tombstone was partly covered with a rich, short, orange-coloured lichen, such as is often seen on old ruins, or giving an additional beauty to the picturesque in landscape scenery. In the present instance, however, it was fast obliterating the workman ship of some forgotten village-sculpture, and already half concealed a very plump cherub, who with wings placed cross wise on his breast, and huge swollen cheeks, seemed endeavouring in vain to blow away the destructive creepers which were rapidly overgrowing both himself and his stony trumpet. As for the poor inhabitant below, not a letter was visible to tell of either his name or his age; and a. Grim death's-head, that stood grinning from a neighbouring gravestone - as if it had long watched the slow working of decay, -now seemed to gaze in triumph at the victory which Time had once more obtained over Human Vanity. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.