A dialoge of comfort against tribulacion, made by Syr Thomas More Knyght, and set foorth by the name of an Hu[n]garie[n], not before this time imprinted

¶The .ii. Chapter. Of the shorte vncertayne lyfe in extreme age or sickenes.

☞Anthony.

COsin I haue bethought me somewhat vpon this matter since we were last together. And I fynde it, if we shoulde goe some waye to worke, a thyng that would require many mo dayes to treate therof, than we shoulde happely fynde mete thereto in so fewe as my selfe wene that I haue nowe to liue, while euerytime is not like with me, and among many paynfull, in whiche I loke euery daye to departe: my mendyng dayes come very seld, and are very shortly gone. For surely Cosin I cannot lycken my lyfe more metely now than to the snuffe of a can∣dle that burneth within y^e candelstyckes nose. For as the snuffe some time burneth down so lowe, that who∣so

loketh on it, would wene it were quite out, and yet sodeynly lifteth a flame halfe an inche aboue the nose, and geueth a preaty shorte lighte again, and thus plaieth diuers tymes, til at last ere it be looked for, out it goeth altogether: so haue I Cosin diuers such daies together, as eueryday of them I loke euen for to dye: and yet haue I than after that some suche fewe daies againe as you see me now to haue your selfe, in which a man would wene that I might well continue, but I knowe my lingering not likely to la••t long, but oure wil my snuffe sodeynly some daye within a while, and therfore wil I with goddes helpe, seme I neuer so wel amended neuertheles reckē euery day for my last: for thoughe that to the repressing of the bolde courage of blynde youth there is a very true prouerbe, y^t as soone cometh a young shepes skin to the market as an olde, yet this difference there is at the least betwene them: that as the younge man maye happe sometime to die soone, so y^e olde mā can neuer liue long. And there••ore Cosin, ••n our matter here leauīg out mani thinges y^t I would els treate of, I shall for this time speake but of ve••y fewe, howbeit if god hereafter send me moe such daies, thā wyl we when you luste farther talke of moe.