Prologue

How hard and painful are the last hours of an aged man! He grows weaker every day; his eyes become dim, his ears deaf; his strength fades; his heart knows peace no longer. Many are the ill things which befall him every day. The mind is void and recalls not even yesterday. The whole body suffers. Let him who grows old in his age seek the good of retirement, and know that it is sweet for a man to pass his days in quietness.

The Pharaoh replied to his vizier Ptahhotep: Instruct him in the sayings of the past, so that he may be a model for the children of the great. Let hearing enter into him, and the exact conduct of him that heareth. How good and beautiful is the thing! It subdues even those who are in rebellion against thee.