Institutio Oratoria

Child of my vain hopes, did I see your eyes fading in death and your breath take its last flight? Had I the heart to receive your fleeting spirit, [*]( It was customary for the next-of-kin to receive in the mouth the last breath of the dying to continue the existence of the spirit. ) as I embraced your cold pale body, and to live on breathing the common air. Justly do I endure the agony that now is mine, and the thoughts that torment me.