Sic transit gloria mundi

I started back with astonishment.

"Sic transit gloria mundi," exclaimed I, with a melancholy shake of the head.

Here is a dreary but true picture of the vicissitudes of life.

One night paraded in regal robes, surrounded with a splendid train of nobility.

And as we may take with us only virtue, shall we not cherish and ensue it? We are reminded of the picture by G.

F. Watts, Sic transit gloria mundi, in which another prince is seen upon the bier, his crown, his books, his wine-cup laid aside.

and over his beer are the words, What I spent I had, what I had I lost, what I gave I have.

It is sound Buddhism, and every word of this sermon of the royal monk is drawn from the Dhammapada, accepted in all Buddhist lands as the very words of the Buddha.