upon his harp, to deaden its vibrations." "I think that to have known
one good old man," George William Curtis says, "one man who, through the
chances and mischances of a long life, has carried his heart in his
hand, like a palm branch, waving all discords into peace--helps our
faith in God, in ourselves, and in each other more than many sermons."
"He that would pass the declining years of his life with honor and
comfort," says Addison, with fine opposition, "should, when young,
consider that he may one day become old, and remember, when he is old,
that he has once been young." On the principle that blessings brighten
as they take their flight we come to love the sunshine and the birds and
all God's glorious works just as we grow old.
"IF WE NEVER CARED FOR LITTLE CHILDREN BEFORE"
says Lord Lytton, "we delight to see them roll on the grass over which
we hobble. The grandsire turns wearily from his middle-aged, care-worn
son, to listen with infant laugh to the prattle of an infant grandchild.
It is the old who plant young trees; it is the old who are most saddened
by the autumn, and feel most delight in the returning spring." "Winter,"
says Richter, "which strips the leaves from around us, makes us see the
distant regions they formerly concealed; so does old age rob us of our
enjoyments, only to enlarge the prospect of eternity before us." Seneca
says that there is nothing more disgraceful than that an old man should
have nothing to produce as a proof that he has lived long except his
years. I love Longfellow's picture of