Pleasures of the World

It is said that the Duke d'Alva starved his prisoners, after he had given them quarter, saying, "Though I promised your lives, I promised not to find you meat." Thus in the same manner doth the world deceive its votaries in the end. The Persians, when they obtained a victory, selected the noblest slave, and made him a king for three days; clothed him with royal robes, and ministered to him all the pleasures he could choose; but at the end of all he was to die as a sacrifice to mirth and folly. So the pleasures of the world are short-lived, and he only is the happy man who is rich towards God, and lives and dies in His favour.—Buck.