Cetera Mortis Erunt; Vivitur Ingenio

http://distichalatina.blogspot.it/2012/01/cetera-mortis-erunt-vivitur-ingenio.html

Source: Gabriel Rollenhagen (1583-1619), Nucleus, 1, with an English rendering by George Wither (here is Wither's poem). This distich sets up an opposition between life and death - to the world of life belong talent, learning, and the good arts (you can see the wise practitioner of the good arts on the left side of the emblem), while everything else, including the wealth of the world, belongs to the crumbling realm of death, shown on the right...