68 ESSA 15 CIVIL AND MORAL. 



more lively than that of old ; and imaginations stream into their 

 minds better, and as it were more divinely. Natures that have much 

 heat, and great and violent desires and perturbations, are not ripe foi 

 action, till they have passed the meridian of their years : as it was 

 with Julius Cesar and Scptimius Severus. Of the latter of whom it is 

 said, &quot; Juventutem egit erroribus, imo furpribus, plcnam.&quot; And yet he 

 was the ablest emperor almost of all the list. But reposed natures may 

 do well in youth : as it is seen in Augustus Cicsar, Cosmos duke of 

 Florence, Gaston de Fois, and others. On the other side, heat and 

 vivacity in age is an excellent composition for business. Young men 

 are fitter to invent than to judge ; fitter for execution than for counsel ; 

 and fitter for new projects than for settled business. For the experience 

 of age, in things that fall within the compass of it, directeth them ; but 

 in new things abuseth them. The errors of young men are the ruin 

 of business ; but the errors of aged men amount but to this, that more 

 might have been done, or sooner. Young men, in the conduct and 

 manage of actions, embrace more than they can hold ; stir more than 

 they can quiet ; fly to the end, without consideration of the means and 

 degrees ; pursue some few principles, which they have chanced upon, 

 absurdly; care not to innovate, which draws unknown inconveniences; 

 use extreme remedies at first ; and, that which doublcth all errors, will 

 not acknowledge or retract them : like an unready horse, that will 

 neither stop nor turn. Men of age object too much, consult too long, 

 adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home 

 to the full period ; but c ontcnt themselves with a mediocrity of success. 

 Certainly it is good to compound employments of both ; for that will 

 be good for the present, because the virtues of either age may correct 

 the defects of both : and good for succession, that young men may be 

 learners, while men in age are actors : and lastly, good for extern 

 accidents, because authority followeth old men, and favour and popu 

 larity youth. But for the moral part, perhaps youth will have the 

 pre-eminence, as age hath for the politic. A certain Rabbin upon the 

 text, &quot; Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall 

 dream dreams; &quot; inferrcth, that young men are admitted nearer to God 

 than old ; because vision is a clearer revelation than a dream. And 

 certainly the more a man drinkcth of the world, the more it intoxi- 

 cateth ; and age doth profit rather in the powers of understanding, 

 than in the virtues of the will and affections. There be some have an 

 over-early ripeness in their years, which fadeth betimes : these are 

 first, such as have brittle wits, the edge whereof is soon turned; such 

 as was Hermogenes the rhetorician, whose books are exceeding subtile, 

 who afterwards waxed stupid. A second sort is of those that have 

 some natural dispositions, which have better grace in youth than in 

 age : such as is a fluent and luxuriant speech ; which becomes youth 

 well, but not age. So Tully saith of Hortensius, &quot; Idem manebat, 

 nequc idem dcccbat.&quot; The third is, of such as take too high a strain 

 at the first, and are magnanimous, more than tract of years can uphold. 

 As was Scipio Africanus, of whom Livy saith in effect, &quot; Ultima primis 

 cedebant&quot; 



