ordered this to be done.  A pair of scales were brought.  The skull was placed in one, a quantity of gold in the other; when, to the astonishment of the beholders, the skull over-balanced the gold.  More gold was added, yet still the skull preponderated.  In short, the more gold there was put in the one scale the lower sank that which contained the skull.  “Strange,” exclaimed Alexander, “that so small a portion of matter should outweigh so large a mass of gold!  Is there nothing that will counterpoise it?” “Yes,” answered the philosophers, “a very little matter will do it.”  They then took some earth and covered the skull with it, when immediately down went the gold, and the opposite scale ascended.  “This is very extraordinary,” said Alexander, astonished.  “Can you explain this phenomenon?” “Great king,” said the sages, “this fragment is the socket of a human eye, which, though small in compass, is yet unbounded in its desires.  The more it has, the more it craves.  Neither gold nor silver nor any other earthly possession can ever satisfy it.  But when it is once laid in the grave and covered with a little earth, there is an end to its lust and ambition.”

* * * * *

Shakspeare’s well-known masterly description of the Seven Ages of Man, which he puts into the mouth of the melancholy Jaques (As You Like It, ii, 7), was anticipated by Rabbi Simon, the son of Eliezer, in this Talmudic description of

The Seven Stages of Human Life.

Seven times in one verse did the author of Ecclesiastes make use of the word vanity, in allusion to the seven stages of human life.[95]

   [95] Eccles., i, 2.  The word Vanity (remarks Hurwitz, the
        translator) occurs twice in the plural, which the Rabbi
        considered as equivalent to four, and three times in the
        singular, making altogether seven.

The first commences in the first year of human existence, when the infant lies like a king on a soft couch, with numerous attendants about him, all ready to serve him, and eager to testify their love and attachment by kisses and embraces.

The second commences about the age of two or three years, when the darling child is permitted to crawl on the ground, and, like an unclean animal, delights in dirt and filth.

Then at the age of ten, the thoughtless boy, without reflecting on the past or caring for the future, jumps and skips about like a young kid on the enamelled green, contented to enjoy the present moment.

The fourth stage begins about the age of twenty, when the young man, full of vanity and pride, begins to set off his person by dress; and, like a young unbroken horse, prances and gallops about in search of a wife.

Then comes the matrimonial state, when the poor man, like a patient ass, is obliged, however reluctantly, to toil and labour for a living.