HERE FOLLOW FOUR PROFITABLE THINGS TO HAVE IN MIND : WHICH BEEN HAD OUT OF THE THIRD CHAPTER OF A DEVOUT TREATISE AND A FORM OF LIVING;[1] THAT RYCHARDE HAMPOLE WROTE TO A DEVOUT PERSON IN THIS MANNER WISE
The first is the measure of thy life here; that is so short that unnethes it is nought;[2] for we live in a point — that is the least thing that may be — and soothly our life is less than a point if we liken it to the life that lasteth ever.
Another is uncertainty of our ending; for we wit never when we shall die, nor how we shall die, nor whither we shall go when we be dead; and that God will that it be uncertain to us, for He wills that we alway be ready to die.
The third is that we shall answer before the righteous Judge of all, the time that we have been here. How we have here lived, what our occupation hath been, and why; and what good we might have
