YOUTH IN AGE. 27 



society of children is, that the recollections of age, 

 and even manhood, are comparatively faint on their 

 memories, and they actually remember, and think, 

 and enjoy themselves as children, after they cease 

 to find pleasure as men. 



We call those years of extreme age those lin- 

 gerings by the grave's brink, " a second childhood ;" 

 and the thoughtless among us regard the appellation 

 as one of pity, if not of derision. But it partakes 

 of that sound philosophy and perfect wisdom which 

 are contained in all proverbs and by-words which 

 pass current among men, and are sanctioned by the 

 general voice. Why, indeed, is it that any expres- 

 sion becomes a proverb or by- word 1 Is it not just 

 because the truth of it is so plain and so striking, 

 that everybody, learned or unlearned, assents to it 

 at once ; and that it cleaves to the memory as if it 

 were a fact of which our own senses have been the 

 immediate evidence? 



There is something very delightful, as well as 

 something very instructive, in this revival of the 

 memory of youth in the very extreme of old age. 

 It is delightful to think that the mind is independent 

 of time, and not affected by that decay which wastes 

 the body, and in the end brings -it to the dust. 

 Were there no other proof of the mind's immor- 

 tality no other hope of a life beyond the grave, that 

 alone would be a demonstration of it, as clear and 

 satisfactory as we can obtain of any truth whatever. 



But the lesson is more to our present purpose : 

 Why is it that, when we come near to the end of 

 life, and look back upon it, the events of our young 

 years are the most fresh to our memory 1 It is not 

 the mere youth ; for there is a period younger still, 

 of which we can remember nothing. Nobody re- 

 members being born, and there are few that remem- 

 ber being carried in the nurse's arms. But if it is 

 not the mere fact of our being younger that makes 

 us remember better, so neither is it that our minds 



