The universality of this maxim, in ages and countries remote from each other, is remarkable. Thus we find it in the Hitopadésa:
"A wise man should think upon knowledge and wealth as if he were undecaying and immortal. He should practise duty as if he were seized by the hair of his head by Death."—Johnson's Translation, Intr. S.
So Democratis of Abdera, more sententiously:
"Οὕτος πειρῶ ζῆν, ὡς καὶ ὀλίγον καὶ πολὺν χρόνον βιωσόμενος."
Then descending to the fifteenth century, we
have it thus in the racy old Saxon Laine Doctrinal:
"Men schal leven, unde darumme sorgen,
Alse men Stärven sholde morgen,
Unde leren êrnst liken,
Alse men leven sholde ewigliken."