Epitome

Six sonnets on the theme of time by the Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon. Music: John Dowland "Flow My Tears," performed by guitarist Jon Sayles. http://www.jsayles.com/familypages/earlymusic.htm

A short story from the French master of the form, Guy de Maupassant. A skilled carnival knife-thrower laments his misfortune to the sympathetic narrator of the tale.

An excerpt from the chapter, "Economy," in Walden by Henry David Thoreau, where the philosopher expounds his thoughts on simple accoutrements.

The great American storyteller, author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, offers this brief, moralistic animal tale featuring the cleverness of the cat, the skepticism of the ass, and the curiosity of a host of other animals of the forest.

This gentle ancient Greek philosopher lived a life of celibacy and temperance and taught that reason was to be used to  enable people to judge with certainty what is to be chosen,  and what to be avoided,  to preserve themselves free from pain,  and to secure health of body, and tranquillity of mind.

From Whitman's entry on May 12. The narrative of a two-day battle, replete with details of the relentless fighting and gruesome carnage, the beauty of the cloudy sky revealing a silvery moon, and ending with a tribute to the thousands of unknown and unburied soldiers who perished in the United States Civil War.

A collection of quotations on mortality from various sources, famous and less known, classic and contemporary.