The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-05-03
Youth and Old Ago.

, aH
The following, from the pen Of the
Z celebrated Alexander Smith. is full OF
truth, sound sentiment, and much
poetic delicacy of thought. AS we
are all growing old, day by day. let
us learn to do it gracefully:
There is certain even handed
Justice in Time; and for what he takes
away he gives us something in re-
turn. He robs us of elasticity of
Limb and spirit, and in its place he
brings tranquility and repose-the
luild autumnal weather of the soul.
He takes away hope, but he gives us
memory. And the settled, unfuctu-
ating atmosphere of middle age is TO
bad exchange for the. stormful emo
tions,, the passionate crises and sus-
penses Of, the earlier day. The con-
stitutional melancholy Of the middle
aged. man is n dim back ground on
which the pale flowers Of life are
brought out in tho tenderest,relief
Youth is the time for action, middle
age for, thought. In youth, we
hurriedly crop the herbage; in mid
die age. in q sheltered place, we
chew the ruminative cud. In youth,
red-handed, red-ankled, with songs
and shoutings, we gather in the
grapes; in middle age, under our
own fig tree, or in gossip with a
friend, we drink the wine free of all
turbid lees. Youth is lyrical poet;
middle age quiet essayist, fond of
recounting experiences and of ap-
pending moral to every incident.
In youth, the world is strange and
unfamiliar, novel and exciting
everything wears the face and garb
of a stranger; in middle age, the
world is covered over with remi-
niscences as with garment-it is
made homely with usage, it is made
sacred with graves. The middle-aged
man can go nowhere without treading
the mark of his own Footsteps. And
in middle age, too-provided the
man has been good and extraordi-
nary happy one-along with this
mental tranquility there comes a
corresponding sweetness of the moral
atmosphere. He has seen the good
and evil that are in the world, the
ups and the downs, the almost gene
raj desire of the men and the women
therein to do the right thing if they
could but see how-and he hos
learned to be uncensorious and
humane; to attribute the best mo-
tives to every action, and to be chary
of imputing sweeping and cruel
blame. He has quiet smile for the
ain-glorious boast; feeling of re-
spect for shabby -genteel virtues; a
pity for thread-bare garments proud
ly worn, and for the napless hat
glazed into more than pristine bril-
Gancy from frequent brushing after
rain. He would not be satirical for
the world. He has no finger of scorn
to point at anything under the sun.
He has hearty ''amen" for every
good wish, and in the worst cases he
leans to verdict of "not proven.
And along with this blandness and
charity, certain grave, serious
humor, SO smile on the lip and tear
in the eye" is noticeable frequently
in middle-aged persons--a phase of
humor peculiar to that period of life,
as the chrysanthemum to December.
Pity LES at the bottom of it, Just as
pity lies unsuspected at the bottom
of love. Perhaps this special quality
of humor, with its sadness of tender
ness, its mirth with the heart-ache,
its gaiety growing out of deepest
seriousness, like a crocus on a child's
grave, never approaches more closely
to perfection than in some passages
of Mr.. Hawthorne's writin gs-who
was q middle-aged man from earliest
boyhood. And although middle
aged persons have lost the actual
possession of youth, yet in virtue of
this humor they can comprehend it.,
see all round it. enter imaginatively
inio every sweet aud bitter of it.
They wear the key Memory at their
girdles, end they can open every door
in the chamber of youth. And it is
also in virtue of this peculiar humor
that-Mr Dickens Little Nell" to
the contrary-it is only middle aged
persons who can, either as poets or
artists, create for MS n child. There
is no more beautiful thing on earth
than an old mans love for his grand
daughter-more beautiful, even, from
the absence of all suspicion of direct
personal bias or interest, than his
love for his own daughter; and it is