Consideration

I could wish that men, while they are in health, would consider well the nature of the party they are engaged in, and what figure it will make in the minds of those they leave behind them, whether it was worth coming into the world for; whether it appears graceful in this life, or will turn to advantage in the next.From Joozone.com.

Let the sycophant or the buffoon, the satirist or the good companion, consider with himself, when his body shall be laid in the grave, and his soul pass into another state of existence, how much it will rebound to his praise to have it said of him, that no man in England ate better, that he had an admirable talent at turning his friends into ridicule, that nobody outdid him at an ill-natured jest, or that he never went to bed before he had dispatched his third bottle.

These are, however, very common funeral orations, and eulogiums on deceased persons who have acted among mankind with some figure and reputation.

----Joozone Addison

思考作文地带参考翻译：

我希望人们在身体健康的时候，好好地想一想自己在这个社会中究竟属于哪一类人，想一想当自己离开人世后，将留给后人一个什么样的印象；想一想是否值得为了这些，来到人世，想一想这些是不是有理性的生物所为的。

简而言之，该想想我们的所作所为在今生是否是一种荣耀，在来世是否是一种优势。让那些阿谀奉承者、混混小丑们、讽刺专家和酒肉之交们都好好地反思一下：当他的躯体躺进坟墓时，当他的灵魂飘进另一世界时，他以前的所为只会让别人提起他时说：全英格兰没人比他更贪吃、没人比他更会挖苦人、没人比他更会开恶毒的玩笑、没人像他那样每天晚上开完三个酒瓶后才上床。

这些对他有利吗？然而，不少人在活着的时候很有名望与身份，身后却也只能得到这些普通的悼词和赞语。