YOUTH AND AGE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SFEOTATOR."] SIR,—Your previous correspondents have been elders ; may a junior speak P It always seems to me that the friction-point is not between youth and age, but between those who are still young and those who are not old. And these reasons account for this in general. We want work, and they do not feel the least need of help. We have suffered from the defects of the qualities of our immediate predecessors, and when we want to " make for" what we dislike, we have no idea that no one can touch a thing without hurting some person who considers it sacred. Whilst we like our own ideas very much, we do not feel a keen and lasting pain at being deprived of them, —because these ideas and actions are not our best, we believe we may do better, and also because they are our own, and they are not linked with memories and associations which render any touch painful. Then, we do not know when we are putting our elders in a hole, or making them feel small, or displaying our qualities which strike them as rather out of the common, and which they suppose we are trying to show off, In all these ways, frequently our apparent cruelty, con- ceit, and impertinence are entirely sins of ignorance, and really are committed by those who do not think themselves of any account in the eyes of the elders, to whom they look up most sincerely. This is the plea of youth. " Octogenarian " says that there can be no comradeship. But I venture to think even that can sometimes exist when there is a common pursuit, and, except in what years confer, no great difference of social order or intellectual level. The sexes and the ages have much more common ground now-a-days than was formerly the case.
No one, however long they live, can have more than a eel.- tain amount of experience of being young, and mine has been most fortunate, for I have met with unfailing kindness from those on whom I had no claim. They must often have been bored by demands for sympathy, by appeals to their judgment and by petitions for the greatest boon one being can confer upon another,—really truthful criticism. From contemporaries I could not get help such as my seniors give; it is only in age that there is proportionate justice, truthfulness, and wisdom of that kind which will correct tendencies, form character, disregard consequences. Age comfortably gives youth a sense that, although it has been a fool, there have been a good many people who have made fools of themselves without lasting consequences,—provided they learnt the lessons of being in the wrong. No one but an elder can really help one to make the best of that position, and it is one which can be made the best of. Whilst our wisest elders see that there are many who are very glad to be guided, they do not always know that they would get most response from those of whom some seniors really are afraid,—the young with brains, It is said no one can corn. mand who has not learnt to obey. It is as true that, until one has had some command, one does not know how to obey, If elders would only try to do what " Octogenarian" suggests, and would seek to influence such characters, whilst recog- nising their individuality, they would, and they do, meet with the warmest response. Yet when the response is given, it is not always recognised. We discover, as we draw towards the "old age of youth," that our elders do like praise and atten- tions and consideration ; but we cannot convey to them any idea of our gratitude to them, not only for their actions, but for their existence. We value their staying-power. It is the quality we doubt in ourselves.
Please tell us what we juniors ought to do when our heroes will not believe that we can worship them P We like our con- temporaries for other reasons, but many of us trust our elders, defer to their opinions, want their counsel, are grateful for their reproofs, value their praise, are keenly interested in their work, and rejoice in their success. Yet they turn upon us and tell us that we try to snub them and make them feel small, and it is, of course, a sign of intimate relations when as much is voluntarily revealed to the astounded junior. It never has struck us as possible they should not know that they were accepted as hors concours our "betters," with all the responsi. bility of the position upon them, and with a certainty of deference from us. We only expect a great deal from them, and we tell them what we want. What they think of our expectations and requests has seemed very curious to
AN ELDER'S FRIEND.
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