536 OLD AGE. 



AYhen one is beyond 80 years he becomes cowardly and does not 

 wish to die, and when one knows beyond question that death is near 

 a feeling of nielanchoh^ prevades the sonl. * * * j have studied 

 the question in all its aspects. I know that I am going to die, but I 

 do not succeed in convincing myself that I am going to die. It is 

 not the philosopher in me that protests. The philosopher in me does 

 not believe in death, it is the old man, the old man who has not the 

 courage to face the inevitable. However, one must be resigned." 



It is seen then that in spite of old age, in spite of the wear of the 

 spirit and the body, the instinct of life really increases Avith age. Old 

 men desire to live, desire to continue to play their part and to go on 

 with their work, as is proved by the old professors who do not want to 

 abandon their chairs. Old men do not even renounce the tender 

 passion. When 74 years old Goethe fell in love with Ulrica von 

 Lewezow, a young girl of 17 years, and even proposed marriage. 

 Failure in this project caused him great unhappiness, Avhich he 

 expressed in an elegy known as the Elegy of Marienbad. This is 

 his plaint: 



"An invincible desire distrains me; no resource is left me but 

 eternal tears. Let them burst forth and flow on unrestrained. They 

 can never extinguish the flame that consumes me. Already furious, 

 it rages in my breast where life and death contend in fearful strife. 

 * * * For me the universe is lost. I am lost to myself. The 

 gods, Avhose favorite I lately was, have tried me; they lent me 

 Pandora, so rich in treasures, richer still in dangerous seductions; 

 they intoxicated me with the kisses of her mouth which gave so much 

 delight ; they snatch me from her arms and strike me with death." 



This unhappy love suggested to the old poet some brilliant strophes, 

 but the works of the last period of Goethe's life, such as the second 

 part of Faust or the end of Wilhelm Meister, show a decided decline 

 in his genius. 



Old age is, then, the epoch of our existence which is full of the 

 greatest contradictions. On the one hand there is a great desire to 

 live, to be active, to love; on the other, the impossibility of realizing 

 these desires. What are the characteristics of this period of human 

 life which is so full of unhappiness? 



II. 



The aspect of old age is too well known for it to be necessary to 

 describe it in detail. The skin of the face is dry, wrinkled, usually 

 pale. The hair is white, the body more or less bent, the walk slow and 

 difficult, the memory defective. Such are the most significant traits 

 of the aged. It is often thought that baldness is characteristic of old 

 age, but this opinion is erroneous, for the head begins to become bald 

 at a comparatively early period. At an advanced age baldness fol- 

 lows its course, but whoever has not begun to lose his hair when young 

 will not become bald during old age. 



