НАШЛА!!! Хотя и подозреваю в этом перевод всё-таки... но это хоть какая-то целостная отсылка хоть на какого-то автора. Пусть даже и автора перевода.



"Next the strange Empedocles of Agracas;

Experimenting with a water-clock of brass

He wrote in verse, discovered air;

He thought he was God - so there

He argued that there were four elements in all;

That plants had sex, the earth was like a ball

That change took place by love and strife;

And hostoric cycles ran through life

When called upon to prove his deity;

He sneered at all the waiting laity

Great Empedocles, that ardent soul;

Leapt into Etna, and was roasted whole"



Philosophy for Beginners, Richard Osborne