The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1889-07-03
HAPPINESS OF THE OLD.
They Are beyond seihshness and Have
Forgotten Envy.


The old are VIGOROUSLY strong in
matters of Judgment, even though their
knees may be weak. What SO pleas
urable as to sit in the seat of the cen
sor? is. man ever too old for the
bench? The longevity and the hale
ness of our more considerable lawyers
is convincing testimony to the adj
vantageousness of their position.
But every old man stands toward
the community at LARGE like a Judge
toward his criminals. Each year
broadens his horizon, extends his
pleasure and his pastime. Methusela
was man immensely to be envled.
What varied lore. what an endless Sc
ries of graduated pictures he must have
stored within him, as the centuries
passed and left him high and dry
among his pigmy fellowmen.
Nothing is easier, it mag be said,
than to east together the evils which
commonly wait upon old age, and
thereby 10 prove that it is absurd to
suppose that happiness caa exist In
the midst of them. OF course, nothing
is easier than to catalogue these posi-
BILE Affections but, on the other hand,
contend with my betters that happi-
ness, contentment, or what You please
to call the "summum bonum" we all
strive for, is quite independent of most
of these Affections. The prudent per
son, when old, expects TO be tried In
this way
He is prepared, and that is half the
battle. Nor must it be forgotten that
even as his energies have waned with
his increase of years, SO also his body
has changed into n condition well suit
ed to bear physical trials, which, in his
youth, would have been insufferable.
As a STRIPPING he grumbled without
ceasing when toothache on a sprained
ankle kept him within doors: as an oc-
togenarian the chair to which he is
confined for good many hours of the
day is to him by far the most comforta-
bic place in all the world, nor would he
exchange it for the Pope's throne, if
the throne were only to be won by =
journey to Rome.
But to recur to the moral aspect of
the matter. Is it not fact that a good
mans goodness increases as he grows
older? There is nothing in the world
more venerable and lovable than good
old man or woman. Surely that is
much. for are not respect and affection
just the two things for which we fight
hardest during the fighting part of our
career? And they may be acquired by
the aged without effort
1T is only older people, after all,
who are quite unselfish, and feel the
greatest pleasure in witnessing the
happiness of others" Miss Thackeray
was very right when she wrote this.
1t constitutes the keenest Joy of rev.
erend old age; Joy TO which the wild
intoxicants, which in youth we call
pleasures, are as nothing at all. 1t is
almost impossible. made as we are. for
the young TO be disinterestedlv happy
IN the happiness of others. Envy and
jealousy are ever on the alert to mar
such divine possibility. But the old
are doubly gladdened by the visible
JOY of others. They are generous
enough to rejoice because others are
prOfited. And-this is not cvnicism-
they often also find cause TO congratu-
late themselves that their own. snug
tranquility is not in peril of being dis
turbed by the like boisterous agents of
felicity.
1t is for their peace and resignation
that / most admire the old. They have
attained Nirvana. The worlds game.
confessedly not an unamazing one, is
known to them. They are on the
heights of Pisgah, whereas we are war
ring in the plain or groaning in the
valleys about the tedium of our days
All tie Year Round