Turn thy body about, and consider what thing it is, and that which old age, and lust, and the languor of disease can make of it.

Or come to its substantial and causal qualities, its very type: contemplate that in itself, apart from the accidents of matter, and then measure also the span of time for which the nature of things, at the longest, will maintain that special type.

Nay! in the very principles and first constituents of things corruption hath its part--so much dust, humour, stench, and scraps of bone! Consider that thy marbles are but the earth's callosities, thy gold and silver its faeces; this silken robe but a worm's bedding, and thy [207] purple an unclean fish.

Ah! and thy life's breath is not otherwise, as it passeth out of matters like these, into the like of them again.
"For the one soul in things, taking matter like wax in the hands, moulds and remoulds--how hastily!--beast, and plant, and the babe, in turn: and that which dieth hath not slipped out of the order of nature, but, remaining therein, hath also its changes there, disparting into those elements of which nature herself, and thou too, art compacted.
She changes without murmuring.

The oaken chest falls to pieces with no more complaining than when the carpenter fitted it together.