Must light his glorious funeral pile:
Still dauntless midst the wreck of earth he'd smile."
Of this passage Stemplinger records thirty-one imitations. How many have had their patriotism strengthened by Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, the verse which is aptly found in modern Rome on the monument to those who fell at Dogali. How many have been supported and comforted in calamity and sorrow by the poet's immortal words of consolation on the death of Quintilius:
Durum: sed levius fit patientia
Quicquid corrigere est nefas,—
Ah, hard it is! but patience lends
Strength to endure what Heaven sends.
The motto of Warren Hastings was Mens aequa in arduis,—An even temper in times of trial. Even humorous use of these phrases has served a purpose. The French minister, compelled to resign, no doubt drew substantial consolation from Virtute me involvo, when he turned it to fit his case:
In the robe of my virtue I wrap me round
A solace for loss of all I had;