ttered, he was covered with wrinkles, bald, and
hardly able to utter hollow and unmelodious sounds. He was
bent on his stick, and all his limbs and joints trembled.
"Who is that man?" said the prince to his coachman. "He is
small and weak, his flesh and his blood are dried up, his
muscles stick to his skin, his head is white, his teeth
chatter, his body is wasted away; leaning on his stick he is
hardly able to walk, stumbling at every step. Is there
something peculiar in his family, or is this the common lot
of all created beings?"

'"Sir," replied the coachman, "that man is sinking under old
age, his senses have become obtuse, suffering has destroyed
his strength, and he is despised by his relations. He is
without support and useless, and people have abandoned him,
like a dead tree in a forest. But this is not peculiar to
his family. In every creature youth is defeated by old age.
Your father, your mother, all your relations, all your
friends, will come to the same state; this is the appointed
end of all creatures."

'"Alas!" replied the prince, "are creatures so ignorant, so
weak and foolish, as to be proud of the youth by which they
are intoxicated, not seeing the old age which awaits them!
As for me, I go away. Coachman, turn my chariot quickly.
What have I, the future prey of old age,--what have I to do
with pleasure?" And the young prince returned to the city
without going to his park.

'Another time the prince drove through the southern gate to
his pleasure garden, when he perceived on the road a man
suffering from illness, parched with fever, his body wasted,
covered with mud, without a friend, without a home, hardly
able to breathe, and frightened at the sight of himself and
the approach of death. Having questioned his coachman, and
received from him the answer which he expected, the young
prince said, "Alas! health is but the sport of a dream, and
the fear of suffering must take this frightful form. Where
is the wise man who, after having seen what he is, could any
longer think of joy and pleasure?" The prince turned his
chariot and returned to the city.

'A third time he drove to his pleasure garden through the
western gate, when he saw a dead body on the road, lying on
a bier, and covered with a cloth. Th