Meditations 7.50

That which has grown from the earth to the earth, But that which has sprung from heavenly seed, Back to the heavenly realms returns.

This is either a dissolution of the mutual involution of the atoms, or a similar dispersion of the unsentient elements.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.50, translated by George Long

All that is earth-born gravitates earthwards, Dust unto dust; and all that from ether Grows, speeds swiftly back again heavenward;

that is, either there is a breaking up of the closely-linked atoms or, what is much the same, a scattering of the impassive elements.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.50, translated by C. R. Haines