re advance.

Every one knows that the Egyptians made use of a very extraordinary
custom in their festivals. They shewed to every guest a skeleton: this,
according to some, was to make them think of death. Others again assure
us, "That this strange figure was made use of to a quite contrary end;
that this image of death was shewn for no other intent but to excite
them to pass away their life merrily, and to employ the few days of its
small duration to the best advantage; as having no other condition to
expect after death, but that of this frightful skeleton[4]."

This last sentiment is, without doubt, most probable; for what
likelihood is there that people would make reflections the most sad and
serious, at a time when they proposed only to divert, and make
themselves merry. This influence had the sight of a skull upon the mind
of Trimalchion, who Petronius[5] tells us, thus expressed himself on
that object:-- "Alas! alas! wretched that we are! what a nothing is poor
man! we shall be all like this, when Fate shall have snatched us hence.
Let us therefore rejoice, and be merry while we are here." The Latin is
much stronger:--

Heu! heu! nos miseros! quam totus homuncio nil est,
Sic erimus cuncti, postquam nos auferet orcus.
Ergo vivamus, dum licet esse, bene.

A little before he said almost the same thing. "Alas! wine therefore
lives longer than man, let us then sit down and drink bumpers; life and
wine are the same thing." _Heu! heu! ergo diutius vivit vinum, quam
homuncio. Quare Tangomenas faciamus, vita vinum est._ This puts me in
mind of what Athenaeus[6] reports of an Egyptian, called Mycernius. This
man having been told by the oracle that he had but a very short time to
live, resolved to make the most of that short space, and to that end did
nothing but drink night and day.

This thought of an approaching death is not so importunate as is
believed, since it is, says an[7] anonymous French author, a principal
beauty of an ancient hymn of the poet Cecilius. "Let me be assured, says
he, that I shall live six months, and I shall employ them so well, as to
die the seventh without any regret in the world."

The same author goes on thus:-- "The moderns have not failed imitating
the elegant flights of the fine wits of the ancient Greeks and Romans.
I find, especially, that the Italians come nearer to them; perhaps,
because they are more proper than others to refine on pleasure. This is
the character of the nati