Momento mori

From Bowyer Nichol's 'Words and Days': the entry for January 10th.

Death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all: all shall die. 

How a good yoke of bullocks at Stamford fair?


2 KING HENRY IV. iii. 2.


'SUPPOSE the worst to happen, I said, addressing a portly jeweller from Cheapside; 'suppose even yourself to be the victim; il n'y a pas d'homme nécessaire. We should miss you for a day or two upon the Woodford branch: but the great mundane movement would still go on, the gravel walks of your villa would still be rolled, dividends would still be paid at the Bank, omnibuses would still run, there would still be the old crush at the corner of Fenchurch Street.' All was of no avail. Nothing could moderate, in the bosom of the great English middle class, their passionate, absorbing, almost bloodthirsty, clinging to life.


MATTHEW ARNOLD.


AND fear not lest Existence, closing your 

Account and mine, shall know the like no more; 

The eternal Sáki from that Bowl has pour'd 

Millions of Bubbles like us, and will pour.

FITZGERALD'S Omar Khayyám.