The Portland daily press., 1866-01-06
Sunday Reading.
Growing Old.


1t seems to us, therefore, that q great deal OF
unnecessary pity has been thrown away upon
old ace. We begin at school reading Circero's
treatise. hearing him talk with Scipio Laelius
we hear much about poor old men; we are
taught to admire the vigor, quickness and ca
pacity of youth and manhood. We lose sight
Of the wisdom which age brings even the
most foolish. We think that circumscribed
sphere must necessarily be an unhappy one
1t is not always so.5 What one abandons in
growing old Is perhaps after all not worth hav-
ing. The chief part of youth is but excite
ment; often both unwise and unhealthy. The
same pen which has written, with morbid
telling, that "there is class of beings who do
grow old in their youth, and die ere middle
age" tells us also that "the best of life is but
intoxication." That passes away. The man
who has grown old does not care for it. The
author at that period has no feverish excite
ment about seeing himself in print; he does
not hunt newspapers for reviews and notices.
He is content to wait; he knows what fame is
worth. The obscure man Of science, who has
been wishing to make the world better and
wiser; the struggling curate, the poor and hard
tried man of God; the enthusiastic reformer,
who has watched the sadly slow dawning OF
progress and liberty; the artist, whose dream
OF beauty slowly fades before his dim eyes
all lay down their ieverish wishes as they adj
vance in life, forget the bright ideal which they
cannot reach, and embrace the more impor-
tant real. We speak not ofthe assured Chris
tian. He, from the noblest pinnacle Of faith,
beholds promised land, and is eager to reach
it; he prays ito be delivered from the body of
death )" but we write OF those humble, perhaps
more human souls, with whom increasing age
each day treads down some illusion. ALI fever
lSh wishes, raw and inconclusive desires, have
died down, and calm beauty and peace sur
vive; passions are dead, temptations weakened
or conquered; experience has been won; sell
fish interests are widening into universal ones
vain, Idle hopes have merged into a firmer
faith or a complete knowledge; and more light
has broken in upon the SOUPS dark cottage
battered and decayed, Through chinks which
Time has made.o 500 ar - gis 9si-i 81
Again, old men are valuable, mot only as
relics of Cne past, but as guides and prophets
for the future. They know the pattern of ev-
cry turn OF life's kaleidoscope. The colors
merely fall into new shapes the ground work
is just the same The good which calm
hearted, cheerful old man can do is incalcula-
Bile. And whilst he does good to others, he
enjoys himself He looks not unnaturally to
that which should accompany old age-honor,
love, obedience, troops Of friends; and he plays
his part in the comedy or tragedy of lite with
as much gusto as any one else. Old Montague
or Capulet, and old Polonius, that wise max
i'm man, enjoy themselves quite as well as the
moodY Hamlet, the perturbed Laertes, or even
gallant Mercutio or 1ove-sick Romeo Friar
Laurence, who is a good old man, is perhaps
the happiest OF all in the drdmatis personoe,
unless we take the gossipping, garrulous old
nurse, with her sunny recollections of 1natu-
rity and youth. The great thing is to have
the mind well employed, to work while it is
yet day. The precise Duke Of Wellington, an
swering every letter with "F. M. presents his
compliments" the wondrous worker, Hum
boldt, with his order of knighthood, stars, and
ribbons lying dusty in his drawer, still con-
templating Cosmos, and answering his thirty
letters day,-were both men in exceedingly
enviable, happy positions; they had reached
the top OF the hill, and could look back quietly
over the rough road which they had travelled.
We are not all Humboldts or Wellingtons; but
we can all be busy and good. Experience
must teach us all great deal; and If it only
teaches US not to fear the future, not to cast a
maundering regret over the past, we can be rs
happy in Old age-ay, and far more so-than
we were in youth. We are no longer the fools |
OF time and error. We are leaving by allow de- |
grees the old world; we both stand upon the
threshold OF the new not without hope, but
without fear, in an exceedingly natural posi- \
tlon, with nothing strange or dreadful about |
1t; with our domain drawn within narrow
circle, buo equal to our power. Muscular /
strength, organic instincts, are all gone; but |
what then? We do not want them; we are /
getting ready for the great change, one which
is Just as necessary as it was to be born; and
TO little child perhaps one is not a whit more
neutrality-suspicious. not so painful as the other.
Inc wneeis OF Time have brought us to the |
goal; we are about to rest while others labor,
TO stay at home while others wander. We |
touch at the mysterious door; are we to be I
pitied OF to be envied?-LGood Company.