Lastly, if length of days be thy portion, make it not
thy expectation. Reckon not upon long life; but live
always beyond thy account. He that so often sur-
viveth his expectation lives many lives, and will scarce
complain of the shortness of his days. Time past is
gone like a shadow; make times to come present; con-
ceive that near which may be far off. Approximate
thy latter times by present apprehensions of them: be
like a neighbour unto death, and think there is but
little to come. And since there is something in us that
must still live on, join both lives together, unite them
* Ovation, a petty and minor kind of triumph.
in thy thoughts and actions, and live in one but for the
other. He who thus ordereth the purposes of this life,
will never be far from the next, and is in some manner
already in it, by a happy conformity and close appre-
hension of it.
NOTES TO THE RELIGIO MEDICI.
1. It was a proverb, "Ubi tres medici duo athei."
2. A Latinised word meaning a taunt (impropero.
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