Contemplate men as from some lofty height. How innumerable seem the
swarms of men! How infinite their pomps and ceremonies! How they wander
to and fro upon the deep in fair weather and in storm! How varied their
fate in their births, in their lives, in their deaths! Think of the
lives of those who lived long ago, of those who shall follow thee, of
those who now live in uncivilized lands who have not even heard of thy
name, and, of those who have heard it, how many will soon forget it; of
how many there are who now praise thee who will soon malign thee,--and
thence conclude the vanity of fame, glory, reputation. (Book ix., §30.)