Hic Jacet Pulvis cinis et nihil.

O POMP of earthly elements

That bound a heavenly soul,

Vain boasting language of the dead

Upon a crumbling scroll!

Is not this simple epitaph

Grander and more complete

Than endless genealogies

Writ at the sleeper's feet?

Does it not speak of clayey shroud

That bound the spark divine;

And say, "The ashes unto earth,

The soul, O Lord, is thine"?

*Epitaph on a slab from the Catacombs, now in possession of the Redwood Library at Newport, R. I.