gratifications and pleasures. In the name of the supreme moral law he
sets himself up for a pessimistic philosopher.

"Our life is a breath, light as a floating bark. The grave is at
the very threshold of life, it awaits us not far from the womb of
our mother....

"Since the beginnings of the earth, we have been here, and she
changes us like the grass of her soil. She stands firm, unshaken.
We alone are changeable, and help there is none for us, no
refuge, nor may we decline to come hither. Like an angler of
fish, the world brings us up on a hook. Before it has finished
devouring one generation, the next is ready for its fate. One is
swallowed up, the other snatched away. Whence cometh our help?"

To this general destruction, this wildness of the elements, which the
"Mourner" fails to comprehend, permeated as he is with belief in Divine
justice, is superadded the malice of man.

"And thou also, thou becomest a scourge unto thy brother! The
heavenly host is joined by thy fellow-man. From the wrath of man,
O man, thou wilt never escape. His jealousy of thee will last for
aye, until thou art no more!"


And with all this, does life offer aught substantial, aught that is
lasting?

"Where are they, the forgotten generations? Their very name and
memory have disappeared. And in the generation to come, we, too,