* * * * *
The following inscription, in a churchyard in Germany, long puzzled alike
the learned and the unlearned:--
O quid tua te
be bis bia abit
ra ra ra
es
et in
ram ram ram
i i
Mox eris quod ego nunc.
By accident the meaning was discovered, and the solution is equally
remarkable for its ingenuity and for the morality it inculcates:--"O
superbe quid superbis? tua superbia te superabit. Terra es, et in terram
ibis. Mox eris quod ego nunc."--"O vain man! why shouldst thou be proud?
thy pride will be thy ruin. Dust thou art, and to dust shalt thou return.
Soon shalt thou be what I am now."