not despise all earthly traffic who,
enjoying heaven, rejoiceth to see herself exempted from earthly affairs?

[117] Claudius Ptolemaeus, mathematician, astronomer, geographer, fl.
A.D. 139-161.

[118] Cf. _Somn. Scip._ 6. 14 ap. Macr. _Comment._ ii. 10.

VII.

Quicumque solam mente praecipiti petit
Summumque credit gloriam,
Late patentes aetheris cernat plagas
Artumque terrarum situm.
Breuem replere non ualentis ambitum 5
Pudebit aucti nominis.
Quid o superbi colla mortali iugo
Frustra leuare gestiunt?
Licet remotos fama per populos means
Diffusa linguas explicet 10
Et magna titulis fulgeat claris domus,
Mors spernit altam gloriam,
Inuoluit humile pariter et celsum caput
Aequatque summis infima.
Vbi nunc fidelis ossa Fabricii manent, 15
Quid Brutus aut rigidus Cato?
Signat superstes fama tenuis pauculis
Inane nomen litteris.
Sed quod decora nouimus uocabula,
Num scire consumptos datur? 20
Iacetis ergo prorsus ignorabiles
Nec fama notos efficit.
Quod si putatis longius uitam trahi
Mortalis aura nominis,
Cum sera uobis rapiet hoc etiam dies, 25
Iam uos secunda mors manet.

VII.

He that to honour only seeks to mount
And that his chiefest end doth count,
Let him behold the largeness of the skies
And on the strait earth cast his eyes;
He will despise the glory of his name,
Which cannot fill so small a frame.
Why do proud men scorn that their necks should bear
That yoke which every man must wear?
Though fame through many nations fly along
And should be blazed by every tongue,
And houses shine with our forefathers' stories,
Yet Death contemns these stately glories,
And, summoning both rich and poor to die,
Makes the low equal with the high.
Who knows where faithful Fabrice' bones are pressed,
Where Brutus and strict Cato rest?[119]
A slender fame consigns their titles vain
In some few letters to remain.
Because their famous names in books we read,
Come we by them to know the dead?
You dying, then, remembered are by none,
Nor any fame can make you known.
But if you think that life outstrippeth death,
Your names borne up with mortal breath,
When length of time takes this away likewise,