te: Virtuous Life]

96.

The age which flies glides by in stealth and deceives others; and
nothing is more swift than the years, and he who sows virtue reaps
glory.

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[Sidenote: Sleep and Death]

97.

O sleeper, what is sleep? Sleep is like unto death. Why dost thou not
work in such wise that after death thou mayst have the semblance of
perfect life, just as during life thou hast in thy sleep the semblance
of the hapless dead?

98.

The water you touch in a river is the last of that which has gone, and
the first of that which is coming: so it is with time present.

99.

A long life is a life well spent.

[Sidenote: Life]

100.

As a well spent day affords happy sleep, so does a life profitably
employed afford a happy death.

[Sidenote: Time the Destroyer]

101.

O time, consumer of things! O envious age! Thou dost destroy all
things, and consumest all things with the hard teeth of old age, little
by little in a slow death. Helen, when she looked in her mirror and
saw the withered wrinkles made in her face by old age, wept, and
wondered why she had twice been ravished. O time, devourer of things!
O envious age, by which all is consumed!

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[Sidenote: On Fault-finders]

102.

There exists among the foolish a certain sect of hypocrites who
continually seek to deceive themselves and others, but others more than
themselves, though in reality they deceive themselves more than others.
And these are they who blame the painters who study on feast-days the
things which relate to the true knowledge of the forms of the works of
nature, and sedulously strive to acquire knowledge of these things to
the best of their ability.

But such fault-finders pass over in silence the fact that this is the
true manner of knowing the Artificer of such great and marvellous
things, and that this is the true way in which to love so great an
Inventor! For great love proceeds from the perfect knowledge of the
thing loved; and if you do not know it you can love it but little or
not at all; and if you love it for the gain which you anticipate
obtaining from it and not for its supreme virtue, you are like the dog
which wags its tail and shows signs of joy, leaping towards him who can
give him a bone. But if you knew the virtue of a man you would love
him more--if that virtue was in its place.

[Sidenote: Prayer]

103.

I obey Thee, Lord, first for the love which in reason I ought to bear