Question

Explain the following phrase from 'Meditations in Westminster Abbey' by Addison

The life of these men is finely described in Holy Writ by “the path of an arrow,” which
is immediately closed up and lost

Answer 1

Answer:

preferred a serious humour. Whenever he was in a serious mood owned often walk up to Westminster Abbey, a gloomy, grave place, where exists an atmosphere of sadness and silence.

Summary

Addison visits the Westminster Abbey and amuses himself with the tomb-stones and inscriptions of the dead whenever he is in a serious mood. He notices that only the dates of birth and death are recorded without anything about the achievement of some men. He is reminded of persons mentioned in heroic poems who have high sounding names given to them for no other reason than that they were knocked on their head. He thinks that incomplete records on the tombstone are a sort of satire upon the departed persons.