Respiceres hominem, quem brevis urna premit."
The same reflection we find in Ossian:—
"With three steps I measure thy grave,
O thou, so great heretofore!"
It is very difficult indeed to determine in which of these passages the leading thought is expressed best, in which is to be found the most energy, the deepest feeling, the most touching shortness. I think one should prefer the passage of Shakspeare, because the direct mention of the corporal existence gives a magnificent liveliness to the picture, and because the very contrast of the space appears most lively by it; whereas, at the first reading of the other passages, it is not the human being, consisting of body and soul, which comes in our mind, but only the human spirit, of which we know already that it cannot be buried in the grave.
One of the most eminent modern authors seems to have imitated the passage of Shakspeare's Henry IV. Schiller, in his Jungfrau von Orleans, says:—
"Und von dem mächt'gen Talbot, der die Welt
Mit seinem Kriegeruhm füllte, bleibet nichts
Als eine Hand voll leichten Staubs."
(And of the mighty Talbot, whose warlike