HUMAN LONGEVITY. 143 



abstraction of what old age might be ; while admitting that, 

 however rare and difficult their attainment, the objects and 

 methods he indicates are all fitted to give honour, tranquillity, 

 and usefulness to this stage of life. Add to these the reli- 

 gious confidence, which Cicero could only vaguely, if at all, 

 proffer, and we have a summary of whatever is in man's power 

 towards the attainment of that worthy object, a happy and 

 venerated old age. 



But, to reach this end, the preparation must be begun 

 long before. Without infringing too far on the style of the 

 pulpit, we may point out the main fact that the habits, feel- 

 ings, and interests of earlier life are all carried forward into 

 old age ; and often intensified in degree, by the removal of 

 the circumstances which before tempered or constrained 

 them. c On ne jette point Vanore dans le fleuve de la vie,' 

 is the happy phrase of an old French writer for that con- 

 tinuity of life, by which all its parts are linked together ; and 

 the young man, in his intellectual, moral, and physical habits, 

 becomes the interpreter, more or less, of what follows in his 

 after-age. When Lord Bacon says, with his wonted weight 

 of words, ' Strength of nature in youth passeth over many 

 excesses, which are owing a man till he is old,' he expresses 

 a physical as well as a moral fact, which cannot be too well 

 weighed in the education and conduct of early life. It is a 

 maxim full of practical wisdom. 



We have already alluded to the various sentiments with 

 which old age, and approaching end, are regarded by the 

 aged themselves. In many of them the desire to pass away, 

 and this even without the solicitation of active pain or suffer- 

 ing, is equally earnest and sincere. It is with them as with 

 the ' Tre vecchi ' in the Purgatorio of Dante : 



E par lor tardi 

 Che Dio in miglior vita li ripogna. 



