No ritual read;

In silence lay me down

Among the dead.—Heine: Memento Mori.

The great German poet was evidently familiar with Horace:—

Absint inani funere næniæ,

Luctusque turpes et querimoniæ;

Compesce clamorem, ac sepulchri

Mitte supervacuos honores.—Lib. II. Carmen 26.


I am old and blind;