34When a man kisses his child, said Epictetus, he should whisper to himself, “To-morrow perchance thou wilt die”—But those are words of bad omen—“No word is a word of bad omen,” said Epictetus,” which expresses any work of nature; or if it is so, it is also a word of bad omen to speak of the ears of corn being reaped.” (Epictetus, iii. 24.)