IG


Vita, quid es? Quid, Mors? Quid, sors humana, quid
Aetas ?
Tuque, sepultorum, quot sumus, una domus ?
Mortales vestrum est ingenti pondere luctus
Sic premere ut Superi sint similesque Deo.
Torqueat ut laceras miserorum aerumna medullas,
Ut cruciet mentes dilanietque dolor,
Est tamen, est res sancta pati; sine vulnere virtus


Quid foret? armatos talia signa decent.
Prrsey Hore, PERTHSHIRE, August 30, 1903.
“ Libertas, quae sera tamen respexit.”. Vera. Eel. τ. 27.
Lurida nox tardo metae tamen axe propinquat :
Sol oritur; tenebras dissipat orta dies.
Exspectata diu Libertas aurea surgit,


uaeque videbantur somnia, vera probat.
4 I





Spem revocate, viri! Quid si nox longa videtur ?
Advenit en propior iam citiorque dies.
Libertas, sperata diu, iuga lumine tingit ;


Somnia fugerunt; spes vigilantis erat.
March 1, 1912.
178


NIGHT AND DEATH


Mysterious Night! when our first Parent knew
Thee from report divine, and heard thy name,
Did he not tremble for this lovely frame,

This glorious canopy of light and blue ?

Yet ‘neath a curtain of translucent dew,

Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame,
Hesperus with the host of Heaven came,

And lo! Creation widened in man’s view.
Who could have thought such darkness lay concealed

Within thy beams, O Sun! or who could find,
Whilst fly, and leaf, and insect stood revealed,

That to such countless orbs thou mad’st us blind ?
Why do we then shun death with anxious strife 7


If Light can thus deceive, wherefore not Life 7


JOSEPH Bianco WHITE, 1775—1841.
΄ ,
Μείζω τούτων ὄψη.
Plurima Δίου, cedente die, miracula promit,


Fors et in obscura lux sua Morte latet.
A PARAPHRASE


Sacra Dei, celata die, Nox ipsa revelat ;
Nox Adamo veri magna magistra fuit.
