I have touched the highest point of all my greatness;

And from that full meridian of my glory

I haste now to my setting: I shall fall

Like a bright exhalation in the evening,

And no man see me more.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2.

Anon out of the earth a fabric huge

Rose, like an exhalation.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 710.