OLD AGE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " EPECTATOR."]
Sin,—" The falling away of the personal horizon" is an expres- sion used by your last correspondent which recalls some beautiful lines, written and read by the Reverend Dr. George Croly, the author of " Salathiel," at a prii ate dinner given by the late William Tooke, F.R.S., in 18:39 :—
" What is Youth ? a bold gamester ! who stakes against Fate,
At a table of swindlers in Church or in State; He flings his last venture for fortune and fame,
To find one a cheat, and the other a name.
With despair in his heart, and disdain in his eye,
He turns from the table, and turns but to die.
He's the eagle no more ; he now envies the wren, And pines for the peace of the Threescore and Ten.
When the Sun pours the splendours of noon on our eyes, Those splendours but veil the true pomp of the skies ;
'Tis but when he sinks in the surges of Even,
That we see in its grandeur, the star-studded heaven.
The horizon of life thus grows clearer by years ; Man is freed from his fever of hopes and of fears ;
What was storm in the mountain, is calm in the glen,
And he feels the true joys of the Threescore and Ten."
The term "second childhood" applied to "old age" is a truer phrase than many suppose. An old relative of mine died not long since at a very advanced age, and retaining her health and apparent faculties to the last. I often conversed with her, only to discover that nothing whatever troubled her mind; and her happiness was evidently increased by the roseate view of child- hood in which she habitually looked at all things.—I am, Sir, RICHARD HERRING. 27 S. i1rar9'8 Road, Canonbary, Novehther 1811z.
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