Meditations

If thou would'st master care and pain,

Unfold this book and read and read again

Its blessed leaves, whereby thou soon shalt see

The past, the present, and the days to be

With opened eyes; and all delight, all grief,

Shall be like smoke, as empty and as brief.

C. R. H.

This epigram is found at the end of the Vatican MS. and also in the Anthologia Palatina, ii. p. 603 (Jacobs). Possibly by Arethas (see P. Maas in Hermes xlviii. p. 295 ff. ).