Time indeed has very little to do with living except at its beginning or near its end.
Truth is its own defense.
When lightning strikes, the mouse is sometimes burned with the farm.
Marriage! ... Why, it is like living in a thimble with a hippopotamus!
... one pets what one degrades; and one has to support what one has enfeebled
Personally, I think it's a good way to let a child start right in with the laws of Nature before he's old enough to be surprised at them.