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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

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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.

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