"Not everyone, but those whose healthy body will become sickly."

"And if not everyone," the young man continues to ask, "does it know who will suffer such horrors, or is it impossible to determine and foresee?"

"Who among men can know his future," they answered, "and who can judge it unerringly?" This is above human nature and is the lot of immortal gods alone.

Then the prince stopped questioning; what he saw and heard upset him so much that his face changed completely.

A few days later, Joasaph again met an old man on the road, dejected by time, with a completely wrinkled face, with weakened knees, bent, completely gray, toothless, barely speaking. Horror seized the prince. Ordering him to be brought nearer, he began to inquire about the reason for his unusual appearance. His companions said to him:

"He has been living for many years; his strength gradually diminished, his limbs weakened, and you see to what illness he has now reached.

"And what is the end of all this?"

"Nothing but death will complete all this," answered the questioners.

- And all people will have the same thing, or is it only for some?

"Without a doubt, unless premature death saves someone from such ailments, it is impossible in the course of years not to reach such a situation.

- In what years does it happen? And is death inevitable, is there no means to avoid it and not reach such an illness? asked the king's son.

- When they reach the age of 80, 100 years, they die, otherwise it is impossible. For death is a necessity inherent in the human race from the very beginning, and it cannot be avoided.

After all that he had seen and heard, the wise and prudent youth wept from the bottom of his heart and said:

"This life is not sweet, full of all sorrow and sorrow, if all this is so. And how can anyone be carefree, who does not know at all when he should expect death, which comes not only inevitably, but also unexpectedly."