Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1902-02-07
| INE HOME CIRCLE |
ON OLD AGE.
Cicero.

1>S$SN sured that he will live even till the EVENING" Nay,
that period Of life has many more probabilities of death than ours
has: young men more readily fall into disease, suffer more severely,
are cured with more difficulty, and therefore few arrive at old age.
Did not this happen so, we should live better and more wisely, for
intelligence, and reflection and judgment reside in old men, and if
there had been none of them, no states could exist at all. But re-
turn to the imminence of death. What charge is that against old
age, since you see it to be common to youth also? l experienced
not only in the case of my own excellent son, but also in that of
your brothers, Scipio, men plainly marked out for the highest dis
tinction, that death was common to every period of life. Yet a
young man hopes that he will live a long time, which expectation an
old man cannot entertain. His hope is but a foolish one: for what
man can be more foolish than to regard uncertainties as certainaes,
decisions as truths? An old man indeed has nothing to hope for;
yet he s. in 81 much the happier state than a young one; since he
has already attained what the other is only hoping for. The one is
wishing to live long, the other has lived long. And yet good gods!
what is there in mans life that can be called long? For allow the
latest period: let us anticipate the age of the kings of the Tartessii
For there dwelt, as find it recorded, a man named Arganthonius at
Gades, who rcigned for eighty years, and lived a hundred and
twenty. But, to my mind, nothing whatever seems OF long duration
in which there is an end. For when that arrives, then the time
which has passed has flowed away; that only remains which you
have secured by virtue and right conduct. Hours indeed depart
from us, and days and years; nor does past time ever return, nor
can it be discovered what is to follow. Whatever time is assigned to
each to live, with that he ought to be content: for neither need the
drama be performed by the actor, in order to give satisfaction, pro-
vded he be approved in whatever act he may be; nor need the
wise man live till the baudM. For the short period of life is long
enough for living well and honorably; and if you should advance
further, you need no more grieve than farmers do when the lowell
ness of sprngtime hath past, that summer and autumn have come.
For spring represents the time c. youth, and gives promise of the
future fruits; the remaining seasons are intended for plucking and
gathering in those fruits. Now the harvest Of old age, as | have
often said, is the recollection and abundance of blessings previously
secured. In truth everything that happens agreeably to nature is to
be reckoned among blessings. What, however, is so agreeable to
nature as for an old man to die? which even is the lot of the young,
though nature opposes and rcssts. And thus it is that young men
seem to me to die, just as when the violence of flame is extngushed
by flood of water; whereas old men die as the exhausted fire goes
out, spontaneously, without the eXertion of any force: and as fruits
when they are green arc plucked by force from the trees, but when
ripe and mellow drop off, SO violence takes away their lives from
youths, maturity from old men; a state which to me indeed is so de
lghtful, that the nearer approach to death, seem as it were to be
getting sight of land, and at length, after a long voyage, to be just
coming into harbor.
OF all the periods of life there is a definite limit, but Of old age
there is no limit fixed, and life goes on very we'll in il, so long as
you are able to follow up and attend to the duty of your situation,
and, at the same time, to care nothing about death; whence it hap
pens that old age is even of higher spirit and holder than youth.
Agreeable to this was the answer given to PSistratus, the tyrant. by
Scion, when on the former inquirng sin reliance on what hope he
SO boldly wthstood him" the latter is said to have answered, "od
age" The happiest end of life is this-when the mind and the
other senses being unimpaired, the same nature, which put it to-
gethcr, takes asunder her own work. AS in the case of a ship or a
house, he who built them takes them down most easily; SO the
same nature which has compacted man, most easily breaks him up.
Besides, every fastening of glue, when fresh, is with difficulty torn
asunder, but easily when tried by time. Hence it is that that short
remnant of life should be neither greedly coveted, nor without rea-
son given up, and Pythagoras forbids us to abandon the station or
post of life without the orders of our commander, that is of God.
There is, indeed, a saying of the wise Scion, in which he declares
that he does not wish his own death to be unattended by the grief
and lamentations of friends. He wishes, suppose, that he should
be dear to his friends. But know not whether Ennius does not say
with more propriety: LET no one pay me honor with tears nor cele-
brate my funeral with mourning"
He conceives that a death ought not to be lamented which an
Immortality follows. Besides, a dying man may have some degree of
consciousness, but that for a short time, especially, in the case of an
old man, after death, indeed, consciousness either does not exist, or
it il a thing to be desired. But this ought to be a subject of study
from our youth, to be Indifferent about death, without which study
no one can be of tranquil mind. For die we certainly must, and it
is uncertain whether or not on this very day. He, therefore, who at
all hours breads impending death, how can he be at peace in his
minda Concerning which there seems to be no need of such long
discussion, when call to mind not only Lucius Brutus, who was
slain in lberating his country; nor the two Deci, who spurred on
their steeds to a voluntary death; nor Marcus Atius, who set out