24

24

AGE.

277

THE Soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed,
Lets in new light through chinks that time has made;
Stronger by weakness, wiser men become

As they draw near to their eternal home.

Time's current may wear wrinkles in the face, but not reach the heart.

With years our faults diminish, but our vices increase.

Bulwer.

'Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore,
And coming events cast their shadows before.

Of no distemper, of no blast he died,

Campbell.

But fell like autumn fruit that mellowed long,
Even wondered at because he dropt no sooner.
Fate seemed to wind him up for fourscore years,
Yet freshly ran he on ten winters more,
Till, like a clock worn out with eating time,
The wheels of weary life at last stood still.

Dryden.

An old man, broken with the storms of state,
Is come to lay his weary bones among you:
Give him a little earth for charity.

Shakspeare.

He looked in years, but in his years were seen
A youthful vigor, an autumnal green.

Though aged, he was so iron of limb,
None of the youth could cope with him;
And the foes whom he singly kept at bay
Outnumbered his thin hairs of silver gray.

Age had not quenched the open truth.
And fiery vehemence of youth.

Seward.

Yet time, that changes all, had altered him
In soul and aspect as in age; years steal
Fire from the mind as vigor from the limb,
And life's enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim.

Age should fly concourse, cover in retreat
Defects of judgment, and the will subdue,
Walk thoughtful on the solemn silent shore
Of that vast ocean it must sail so soon.

Byron.

Young.

When men grow virtuous in old age, they are merely making a sacrifice to God of the devil's leavings.

Swift.

The most dangerous weakness of old people who have been amiable is to forget they are no longer so. La Rochefoucauld.

It is difficult to grow old gracefully.

Madame de Staël.

It is not easy to straighten in the oak the crook that grows in the sapling.

La Rochefoucauld.

Old age is not so fiery as youth, but when provoked cannot be appeased.

Old men like to give good advice as a consolation for not being longer in a condition to give a bad example. La Rochefoucauld.

What man wishes in youth he has to fullness in old age.

Goethe.

A person is always startled when he hears himself called old for the first time.

No man ever wished to be younger.

The good old man, too eager in dispute,
Flew high, and as his Christian fury rose,
Damned all for heretics who durst oppose.

Though old, he still retained

Holmes.

His manly sense and energy of mind.
Virtuous and wise he was, but not severe;
He still remembered that he once was young.

Swift.

Armstrong.

Fresh hopes are hourly sown in furrowed brows.

Young.