that he is in the childhood of immortality. "One's age should be
tranquil," says Dr. Arnold, "as one's childhood should be playful; hard
work at either extremity of human existence, seems to me out of place;
the morning and the evening should be alike cool and peaceful; at midday
the sun may burn, and men may labor under it." See to it, if it be
within your power, that your father has the rest due to the evening of
his days. Let him sit in the cool. Let him listen to the voices of his
night--the crickets that cry out his mortality and the nightingales that
sing of Paradise!
"GRAY HAIRS
seem to fancy," says Richter, "like the light of a soft moon silvering
over the evening of life." "Old age," says Madame Swetchine, "is not one
of the beauties of creation, but it is one of its harmonies. The law of
contrasts is one of the laws of beauty. Shadows give light its worth;
sternness enchances mildness; solemnity splendor."