Lapis ab Homine
Man of Stone. Consider Shelley's poem Ozymandias:
"I met a traveler from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunk less legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Not only will the mightiest constructions of Man one day turn to dust, revealing the measure of his hubris, but one day Homo sapiens will also come to nothing, and Man's brief stewardship of planet Earth will be forgotten. And the universe will not care.
