United States or Sudan ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Haec Platonis fere. XXII. 79 Apud Xenophontem autem moriens Cyrus maior haec dicit: 'nolite arbitrari, o mihi carissimi filii, me, cum a vobis discessero, nusquam aut nullum fore. Nec enim, dum eram vobiscum, animum meum videbatis, sed eum esse in hoc corpora ex eis rebus quas gerebam intellegebatis.
I was always impressed by the fact that even with us a well-bred gentleman in reduced circumstances never forgets to keep his beaver well brushed, and I remember that long ago I spoke of the hat as the ultimum moriens of what we used to call gentility, the last thing to perish in the decay of a gentleman's outfit. His hat is as sacred to an Englishman as his beard to a Mussulman.
Porson, in his witty Panegyrical Epistle on Hawkins v. Henry IV, act iv. sc. 5. 'Tibullus addressed Cynthia in this manner: "Te spectem, suprema, mihi cum venerit hora, Te teneam moriens deficiente mamu. Lib. i. El. Before my closing eyes dear Cynthia stand, Held weakly by my fainting, trembling hand." Johnson's Works, iv. 35. He was in Parliament, but he had never spoken.
Te spectem suprema mihi cum venerit hora: Te teneam moriens deficiente manu." Here is the same "linked sweetness long drawn out" which gives such a charm to Gray's elegy. In other elegies, particularly those which take the form of idylls, giving images of rural peace and plenty, we see the quiet retiring nature that will not be drawn into the glare of Rome.
I hope they will set it on the Scotch gate though, that I may look, even after death, to the blue hills of my own country, which I love so dearly. The Baron would have added, Moritur, et moriens dukes reminiscitur Argos. A bustle, and the sound of wheels and horses' feet, was now heard in the court-yard of the Castle.
It is needless, it is impossible to add anything to this; the fervor, the sweetness, the flush of poetic ecstasy, the lovely and glowing eye, the perfect nature of that bright and warm intelligence, that darling child; Lady Nairne's words, and the old tune, stealing up from the depths of the human heart, deep calling unto deep, gentle and strong like the waves of the great sea hushing themselves to sleep in the dark; the words of Burns touching the kindred chord; her last numbers, "wildly sweet," traced with thin and eager fingers, already touched by the last enemy and friend, moriens canit, and that love which is so soon to be her everlasting light, is her song's burden to the end.
The nicety of these minute allusions I shall exemplify by another instance, which I take this occasion to mention, because, as I am told, the commentators have omitted it. Tibullus addressed Cynthia in this manner: Te spectem, suprema mihi cum venerit hora, Te teneam moriens deficiente manu. Lib. i. El. i. 73. Before my closing eyes dear Cynthia stand, Held weakly by my fainting trembling hand.
Ultimum moriens, I told him, is old Italian, and signifies LAST THING TO DIE. With this explanation he was well contented, and looked quite calm when I saw him afterwards in the entry with a black hat on his head and the white one in his hand. I think myself fortunate in having the Poet and the Professor for my intimates.
And this leads me to remark that he who inquires very particularly into this matter will not conclude that the heart, as a whole, is the primum vivens, ultimum moriens, the first part to live, the last to die, but rather its auricles, or the part which corresponds to the auricles in serpents, fishes, etc., which both lives before the heart and dies after it.
Among artists, it has always been distinguished by the appellation of the Torso of Belvedere. A wounded warrior, commonly called the GLADIATOR MORIENS. This figure, represents a barbarian soldier, dying on the field of battle, without surrendering.
Word Of The Day