46. The course of the world is as that of the waters of a river, which bears away the present things on its back, and brings with its current, what was unforeseen and unexpected before. It is thus full with these events. 47. All that was present before us, is lost to and borne away from us, and it is in vain to repine at their loss; and whatever was never thought of before, come to pass upon us, but what reliance can there be in any one of them. 48. All the rivers on earth, have their waters continually passing away, and filling them by turns from their sources; but life which the water of the river of the body, being once gone, is never supplied to it from any source. 49. The vicissitudes of fortune, are incessantly turning like a potter’s wheel, over the destinies of people, and are entailing some person or other every moment, in this ocean of the world. 50. A thousand thieves and enemies of our estate, are constantly wandering about to rob us of our properties, and nothing avails whether we sleep or wake to ward them off. 51. The particles of our lives, are wasting and falling off every moment; and yet it is a wonder that, nobody is aware of the loss of the days of his life, as long as he has but a little while to live. 52. The present day is reckoned as ours, but it is as soon passed as the past ones; and thus ignorant of the flight of days, nobody knows the loss of the duration of his life, until he comes to meet with his death. 53. We have lived long to eat and drink, and to move about from place to place, and to rove in foreign lands and woods; we have felt and seen all sorts of weal and woe; say what more is there that we can expect to have for our share. 54. Having wellknown the pain and pleasure of grief and joy, and experienced their changes and the reverses of fortune, I am fully imprest with the idea of the transitoriness of all things, and therefore kept afar from seeking any thing. 55. I have enjoyed all enjoyments, and seen their transitoriness every where; and yet I found no satisfaction with or distaste to anything, nor felt my cool inappetency for them any where. 56. I wandered on the tops of high hills, and roved in the airy regions on the summits of the Meru mountains; I travelled to the cities of many a ruler of men, but met with nothing of any real good to me any where. 57. I saw the same woody trees, the same kind of earthly cities, and the same sort of fleshy animal bodies every where; I found them all frail and transitory, and full of pain and misery as never to be liked. 58. I saw no riches nor friends, no relatives nor enjoyments of life, were able to preserve any one from the clutches of death. 59. Man passes away as soon, as the rain-water glides down the mountain glades; and is carried away by the hand of death as quickly, as a heap of hollow ashes is blown away by the wind.