So thus it came to pass that the king's son often went abroad.
One day, through the negligence of his attendants, he descried
two men, the one maimed, and the other blind. In abhorrence of
the sight, he cried to his esquires, "Who are these, and what is
this distressing spectacle?" They, unable to conceal what he had
with his own eyes seen, answered, "These be human sufferings,
which spring from corrupt matter, and from a body full of evil
humours." The young prince asked, "Are these the fortune of all
men?" They answered, "Not of all, but of those in whom the
principle of health is turned away by the badness of the
humours." Again the youth asked, "If then this is wont to happen
not to all, but only to some, can they be known on whom this
terrible calamity shall fall? or is it undefined and
unforeseeable?" "What man," said they, "can discern the future,
and accurately ascertain it? This is beyond human nature, and is
reserved for the immortal gods alone." The young prince ceased
from his questioning, but his heart was grieved at the sight that
he had witnessed, and the form of his visage was changed by the
strangeness of the matter.

Not many days after, as he was again taking his walks abroad, he
happened with an old man, well stricken in years, shrivelled in
countenance, feeble-kneed, bent double, grey-haired, toothless,
and with broken utterance. The prince was seized with
astonishment, and, calling the old man near, desired to know the
meaning of this strange sight. His companions answered, "This
man is now well advanced in years, and his gradual decrease of
strength, with increase of weakness, hath brought him to the
misery that thou seest." "And," said he, "what will be his end?"