calling the old man near, desired to know the meaning of this strange
sight. His companions answered, "This man is now well advanced in
years, and his gradual decrease of strength, with increase of weakness,
hath brought him to the misery that thou seest." "And," said he, "what
will be his end?" They answered, "Naught but death will relieve him."
"But," said he, "is this the appointed doom of all mankind? Or doth it
happen only to some?" They answered, "Unless death come before hand to
remove him, no dweller on earth, but, as life advanceth, must make
trial of this lot." Then the young prince asked in how many years this
overtook a man, and whether the doom of death was without reprieve, and
whether there was no way to escape it, and avoid coming to such misery.
They answered him, "In eighty or an hundred years men arrive at this
old age, and then they die, since there is none other way; for death is
a debt due to nature, laid on man from the beginning, and its approach
is inexorable."

When our wise and sagacious young prince saw and heard all this, he
sighed from the bottom of his heart. "Bitter is this life," cried he,
"and fulfilled of all pain and anguish, if this be so. And how can a
body be careless in the expectation of an unknown death, whose approach
(ye say) is as uncertain as it is inexorable?" So he went away,
restlessly turning over all these things in his mind, pondering without
end, and ever calling up remembrances of death. Wherefore trouble and
despondency were his companions, and his grief knew no ease; for he
said to himself, "And is it true that death shall one day overtake me?
And who is he that shall make mention of me after death, when time
delivereth all things to forgetfulness? When dead, shall I dissolve
into nothingness? Or is there life beyond, and another world?" Ever
fretting over these and the like considerations, he waxed pale and
wasted away, but in the presence of his father, whenever he chanced to
come to him, he made as though he were cheerful and without trouble,
unwilling that his cares should come to his father's knowledge. But he
longed with an unrestrainable yearning, to meet with the man that might
accomplish his heart's desire, and fill his ears with the sound of good
tidings.

Again he enquired of the tutor of whom we have spoken, whether he knew
of anybody able to help him towards his desire, and to establish a
mind, dazed and shuddering at its cogitations, and