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PTOLEMY

I know that we are mortal, the children of a day;

But when I scan the circling spires, the serried stars’ array,

I tread the earth no longer and soar where none hath trod,

To feast in Heaven’s banquet-hall and drink the wine of God.

H. Darnley Naylor’s Version.

Although there cannot be absolute certainty, this Ptolemy is no doubt the great Greek astronomer; and the epigram would date from about 140 A.D.

HERACLEITUS.

They told me, Heracleitus, they told me you were dead,

They brought me bitter news to hear and bitter tears to shed.

I wept, as I remembered, how often you and I

Had tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky.

And now that thou art lying, my dear old Carian guest,

A handful of grey ashes, long, long ago at rest,

Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake;

For Death, he taketh all away, but them he cannot take.

William (Johnson) Cory (1823-1892).

This is a paraphrase of verses written by Callimachus on hearing of the death of his friend, the poet Heracleitus (not the philosopher of that name).