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It is injustice to expect exemption from that thou wast born unto; humbly submit to the laws of thy condition.

Wouldst thou say to the seasons, Pass not on, lest I grow old? is it not better to suffer well that which thou canst not avoid?

Pain that endureth long, is moderate; blush therefore to complain of it: that which is violent, is short: behold thou seest the end of it.

The body was created to be subservient to the soul; while thou afflictest the soul for its pains, behold thou settest that above it.

As the wise afflicteth not himself because a thorn teareth his garment; so the patient grieveth not his soul, because that which covereth it is injured.

DEATH.

DEATH is the test of our lives, the assay which sheweth the standard of all our actions.

Wouldst thou judge of a life, examine the period of it; the end crowneth the attempt: and where dissimulation is no more, there the truth appeareth.

He hath not spent his life ill, who knoweth to die well; neither can he have lost all his time, who employeth the last portion of it to his honour.

He was not born in vain who dieth as he ought; neither hath he lived unprofitably who dieth happily,

He that considereth he is to die, is content while he liveth: he who striveth to forget it, hath no pleasure in any thing; his joy appeareth to him a jewel which he expecteth every moment he shall lose.

Wouldst thou learn to die nobly? let thy vices die before thee. Happy is he who endeth the business of his life before his death: who, when the hour of it cometh, hath nothing to do but to die;

324 THE ECONOMY OF HUMAN LIFE.

who wisheth not delay, because he hath no longer use for time.

Avoid not death, for it is a weakness; fear it not, for thou understandest not what it is: all that thou certainly knowest, is, that it putteth an end to thy present sorrows.

Think not the longest life the happiest: that which is best employed, doeth man the most honour; himself shall rejoice after death in the advantages of it.

This is the complete ECONOMY of HUMAN LIFE.

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Printed by J. F. DovE, St. John's Square.

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