descent (n.)

descent (adj.)

That in our proper motion we ascend

Up to our native seat: descent and fall

To us is adverse.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 75.

From yon blue heaven above us bent,

The grand old gardener and his wife

Smile at the claims of long descent.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): Lady Clara Vere de Vere. Stanza 7.

Anaxagoras said to a man who was grieving because he was dying in a foreign land, "The descent to Hades is the same from every place."

Diogenes Laertius (Circa 200 a d): Anaxagoras. vi.