A man that is young in years may be old in hours, if he have lost no
time; but that happeneth rarely. Generally, youth is like the first
cogitations, not so wise as the second; for there is a youth in
thoughts as well as in ages; and yet the invention of young men is
more lively than that of old, and imaginations stream into their minds
better, and, as it were, more divinely. Natures that have much heat,
and great and violent desires and perturbations, are not ripe for
action till they have passed the meridian of their years: as it was
with Julius Cæsar and Septimius Severus; of the latter of whom it is
said, “Juventutem egit erroribus, imo furoribus plenam;”[445] and yet
he was the ablest emperor, almost, of all the list; but reposed natures
may do well in youth, as it is seen in Augustus Cæsar, Cosmus Duke of
Florence, Gaston de Foix,[446] and others. On the other side, heat
and vivacity in age is an excellent composition for business. Young
men are fitter to invent than to judge, fitter for execution than for
counsel, and fitter for new projects than for settled business; for
the experience of age, in things that fall within the compass of it,
directeth them; but in new things abuseth them. The errors of young
men are the ruin of business; but the errors of aged men amount but to
this, that more might have been done, or sooner.
Young men, in the conduct and manage of actions, embrace more than
they can hold, stir more than they can quiet; fly to the end, without
consideration of the means and degrees; pursue some few principles
which they have chanced upon absurdly; care not to innovate, which
draws unknown inconveniences; use extreme remedies at first; and that,
which doubleth all errors, will not acknowledge or retract them,
like an unready horse, that will neither stop nor turn. Men of age
object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too
soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content
themselves with a mediocrity of success. Certainly, it is good to
compound employments of both; for that will be good for the present,
because the virtues of either age may correct the defects of both;
and good for succession, that young men may be learners, while men
in age are actors; and, lastly, good for externe accidents, because
authority followeth old men, and favor and popularity youth; but, for
the moral part, perhaps, youth will have the preëminence, as age hath
for the politic. A certain rabbin, upon the text, “Your young men shall
see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams,”[447] inferreth
that young men are admitted nearer to God than old, because vision
is a clearer revelation than a dream; and, certainly, the more a man
drinketh of the world, the more it intoxicateth; and age doth profit
rather in the powers of understanding, than in the virtues of the will
and affections. There be some have an over-early ripeness in their
years, which fadeth betimes; these are, first, such as have brittle
wits, the edge whereof is soon turned; such as was Hermogenes[448] the
rhetorician, whose books are exceedingly subtle; who afterwards waxed
stupid. A second sort is of those that have some natural dispositions,
which have better grace in youth than in age; such as is a fluent and
luxuriant speech, which becomes youth well, but not age; so Tully saith
of Hortensius: “Idem manebat, neque idem decebat.”[449] The third is of
such as take too high a strain at the first, and are magnanimous more
than tract of years can uphold; as was Scipio Africanus, of whom Livy
saith, in effect, “Ultima primis cedebant.”[450]