. . . Then I
looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour
that I had laboured to do; and behold all was vanity and vexation of
spirit, and there was no profit under the sun."
He closed the book, saying,
"So shall you find, Nephew, you, and every man in the evil days of age
when you shall say, 'I have no pleasure in them.' Hubert, I am going to
my long home, nor do I grieve. In youth I met with sorrow, for though I
have never told you, I was married then and had one son, a bright boy,
and oh! I loved him and his mother. Then came the plague and took them
both. So having naught left and being by nature one of those who could
wean himself from women, which I fear that you are not, Hubert, noting
all the misery there is in the world and how those who are called noble
whom I hate, grind down the humble and the poor, I turned myself to good
works. Half of all my gains I have given and still give to those who
minister to poverty and sickness; you will find a list of them when I am
gone should you wish to continue the bounty, as to which I do not desire
to bind you in any way.
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