354 HISTORY OF OHIO. 



haps, has never plead ten causes of any importance— before 

 he has had two years practice, before he has had scarce- 

 ly any acquaintance with men and their dealings, he is 

 placed on the bench as a president judge, instead of a 

 man of greater and better qualifications. And this last 

 one, will be displaced by some younger aspirant in his 

 turn. So of the young physician, who comes forward at once, 

 and occupies, often, the place of his older, and better qualifi- 

 ed predecessor. In older states, though the snows of fifty 

 winters may have whitened the head, it is not, therefore, in- 

 ferred, that the heart is chilled by them. The wise men' ov 

 THE EAST, do not supposc that there is any period in human 

 life, in which we cannot make new acquisitions in knowledge; 

 in which we cannot be useful, innocent and happy. There 

 seems to be a set of ascetics in the West, who think that as 

 soon as a few gray hairs appear in any man's head, he ought 

 to be excluded from all business, public and private: that he 

 ought to withdraw himself from society; become idle, dull, in- 

 sipid, and wholly useless to mankind. Is there any period of 

 human life, in which men of learning, science and tase, should 

 be secluded from the society of the good, innocent and virtu- 

 ous, of both sexes? To men like Franklin, Jefferson, Jay, 

 Clinton, Marshall, and a thousand others, whom we could easi- 

 ly name ; MEN to whom business and books, science and lit- 

 erature; all the pleasures of taste, friendship and society, have 

 furnished all that refines and strengthens the mind; renovates 

 and expands all the affections of the heart; old age exhibits 

 no diminution of either talent or happiness. Such men, when 

 they cease to be statesmen, do not the less love mankind, the 

 lef=s rej-)ice in human happiness, nor the less parti:ipate in it. 

 Too many in our country, think and act as if there was a law 

 of the mind, which limits its pleasures and powers to some 

 particular period of human life. There is no such period. 

 His physical powers may be diminished, his senses somewhat 

 blunted, but the impressions which they have so long convey- 

 ed to him, remain vivid ; and the treasures which they have 

 conveyed to him are laid up, "where no moth can corrupt, 



