OF THE MANNERS OF OLD MEN.
The manners of _old_ men are in a manner the contraries of those of
_youth_. They determine nothing. They do everything less vehemently than
is fit. They never say, they know; but to everything they say, perhaps
and peradventure; which comes to pass from that, having lived long, they
have often mistaken and been deceived. They are peevish, because they
interpret everything to the worst. And suspicious through incredulity,
and incredulous by reason of their experience. They love and hate, as if
they meant to continue in neither. Are of poor spirits, as having been
humbled by the chances of life. And covetous, as knowing how easy it is
to lose, and how hard to get. And timorous, as having been cooled by
years. And greedy of life; for good things seem greater by the want of
them. And lovers of themselves, out of pusillanimity. And seek profit
more than honour, because they love themselves; and profit is among the
goods that are not simply good, but good for one’s self. And without
bashfulness, because they despise seeming. And hope little; knowing by
experience that many times good counsel has been followed with ill
event; and because also they be timorous. And live by memory rather than
hope; for memory is of the time past, whereof old men have good store.
And are full of talk, because they delight in their memory. And vehement
in their anger, but not stout enough to execute it. They have weak or no
desires, and thence seem temperate. They are slaves to gain. And live
more by reason than custom; because reason leads to profit, as custom to
that which is honourable. And do injury to endamage, and not in
contumely. And are merciful by compassion, or imagination of the same
evils in themselves; which is a kind of infirmity, and not humanity, as
in _young men_, proceeding from a good opinion of those that suffer
evil. And full of complaint, as thinking themselves not far from evil
because of their infirmity.
Seeing then every man loves such men and their discourses which are most
agreeable to their own manners; it is not hard to collect, how the
orator and his oration may be made acceptable to the hearer, whether
_young_ or _old_.
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