is once laid in the grave and covered with a little earth, there is an end to its lust and ambition." * * * * * Shakspeare's well-known masterly description of the Seven Ages of Man, which he puts into the mouth of the melancholy Jaques (_As You Like It_, ii, 7), was anticipated by Rabbi Simon, the son of Eliezer, in this Talmudic description of _The Seven Stages of Human Life._ Seven times in one verse did the author of Ecclesiastes make use of the word _vanity_, in allusion to the seven stages of human life.[95] [95] Eccles., i, 2. The word Vanity (remarks Hurwitz, the translator) occurs twice in the plural, which the Rabbi considered as equivalent to four, and three times in the singular, making altogether _seven_. The first commences in the first year of human existence, when the _infant_ lies like a king on a soft couch, with numerous attendants about him, all ready to serve him, and eager to testify their love and attachment by kisses and embraces. The second commences about the age of two or three years, when the darling _child_ is permitted to crawl on the ground, and, like an unclean animal, delights in dirt and filth. Then at the age of ten, the thoughtless _boy_, without reflecting on the past or caring for the future, jumps and skips about like a young kid on the enamelled green, contented to enjoy the present moment. The fourth stage begins about the age of twenty, when the _young man_, full of vanity and pride, begins to set off his person by dress; and, like a young unbroken horse, prances and gallops about in search of a wife. Then comes the _matrimonial state_, when the poor _man_, like a patient ass, is obliged, however reluctantly, to toil and labour for a living. Behold him now in the _parental state_, when surrounded by helpless children craving his support and looking to him for bread. He is as bold, as vigilant, and as fawning, too, as the faithful dog; guarding his little flock, and snatching at everything that comes in his way, in order to provide for his offspring. At last comes the final stage, when the decrepit _old man_, like the unwieldy though most sagacious elephant, becomes grave, sedate, and distrustful. He then also begins to hang down his head towards the ground, as if surveying the place where all his vast schemes must terminate, and where ambition and vanity are finally humbled to the dust. * * * * * But the Talmudist, in his turn, was forestalled by Bhartrihari, an ancient Hindu sage, one of whose three hundred apothegms has been thus rendered into English by Sir Monier Williams: Now for a little while a child; and now An amorous youth; then for a season turned Into a wealthy householder; then, stripped Of all his riches, with decrepit limbs And wrinkled frame, man creeps towards the end Of life's erratic course; and, like an actor, Passes behind Death's curtain out of view.