Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1852-11-18
Growing Old.
BY HORACE GREELEY.

Dercpn-
tions that we are indeed growing old
The eye may have been dimmed, and its
range of viseon contracted, but we did
not mind that-it was result of exces.
sive study or protracted watching-per-
haps of accident or illness but now the
locks once, so luxuriant and ample, have
wasted hair by hair, until they seem lank
and struggling the brow, so smooth and
fair till recently grows rigid and furrowy;
and the features have sharpness and
immobility we had not hitherto known.
Here a casualty has made its mark:
there a great sorrow has set its seal; there
a sin has left its stain; each perhaps scarce
ly noticeable by itself, but altogether ma
king a great change in the expression of
the courtenance, and foreshadowing still
greater changes to follow. Old we as
yet are not, but it is none the less obvious
that we are surely and steadily becoming
SO.
Yes, we are all growing old. The youth,
in the first flesh of his conscious elastici-
ty and energy; the maiden, in her ten
derest beauty and bloom: the strong man,
and his fullness of vigor and endurance
the matron, in her chastened grace and
sober loveiness, all are ripening for decay,
dissolution, and the tomb. Some will
mature earlier, some later; IN any will be
struck down in their youth or their prime;
but sooner or later one common fate a.
waits US, and our common mother will
receive the ashes of US all to her bosom
We know this at arms length, even in
childhood but we realize and take it to
heart from the first hour wherein we per-
ceive that we are growing old.
Well, the admonition wears certain
aspect of austerity or sharpness, but bears
within a core Of sweetness as we'll. The
human frame is less 1.-THE and vigorous,
the human face is less bland and beaute-
Gus in age than in youth yet age has its
graces wherever they have not been bias
ted by the mildewS of disordered prime
Admirable, in all its stages, is the crown
of Gods earthly workmanship, when un-
corrupted by evil, untarnished by sin; and
perhaps never more truly so than when
silvered locks and sunken cheeks proclaim
the evening repose of the passions which
had often distributed, and sometimes pre-
vented the course of active life. Now
conscience, so often oYerborne and stifed
by the fierce clamors of appetite, or the
fell swoop of ambition, re-asserts and vim
dicates its rightful ascendancy; now hea-
ven draws nearer as earth recedes now
the soul awakes, and prepares itself for
the great transformation so visibly ap-
preaching. The Orientals are juster than
we are in their instructive and univer-
sal Difference to Age, deeming length
of days" in some sense a token of Di-
vine appreciation and favor. Manifestly
the soul, which steadily nears the con-
fines of the celestial mansions, ought to
catch something of that glory which
fills their atmosphere, and radiate it, even
though dimly, through its dial plate, "the
human face divine"
But age is not merely " a savor Of life
unto lifen-it is revealer of the foul de-
formity of evil, as well as of the essential
/ loveliness of good. The eagerness and
inexperience of youth may entreat nit
igation of sentence for deeds which even
they cannot excuse; the tempestuous whirl
of active middle life may cloud or distort
our perceptions of the moral character OF
many acts which a calm scrutinizing would
exhibit as unworthy and culpable; but
vicious Old AEGEAN Old Age of decaying
but still domineering appetites-of silver
ed locks not venerable-of leisure without
reflection, and loneliness without God
of serenity devoid of dignity, of respect
and lf-esteem-surely this is among the
saddest sights of a misguided, sin sick
world. Far better an early and name
less grave than an Old Age of punishment
withoutrepentance and vice withoutshame.
GLOW to Grow Old Gracefully" is the
title of some ones book, which l have not
been impelled to open. The name is a.
bundantly suggestive; the book could hard
ly add anything which our own thoughts
if we give them a scope, may not indi-
cate. To grow old gracefully, should
say we must begin by living virtuOusly
and usefully. We need not care for gra-
ces, nor think of self at all each noble
aspiration, each worthy act, will set its
seal upon the yisage. No one needs
an assurance that the old age of Words
worth, of Hannah More, of Miss Edge
worth, was beautiful. Had Washington
lived hundred years, he would have been
to the last the most dignifed and COM
manding American Franklin at eighty
was still young in feeling and in heart.
Many die older than he did who have seen
less than fifty summers. Who imagineS
that Mrs. Fry ever could, that Fanny
Forester ever can, become an old WO-
man?
Is it we'll to desire and pray for length
of days would say, so long as our men
tai faculties remain essentially undecayed,