Age of Women.--Lombardus (L. 4. Sent. dist. 4) and Saint Augustin (l.
22. de Civit. c. 15) prove that we all rise from the dead at that age
at which Christ rose, namely, in the thirty-second year and third
month. Accordingly, as in the whole of heaven there is no
quadragenarian to be found, a child will be as old there as Nestor,
namely, thirty-two years and three months. Knowing this, any one will
highly esteem the fine modesty of women, who after the thirtieth year
give themselves out (like relics) to be older than they are; for it
would be enough, if a quadragenarian, or one of eight-and-forty years,
should make herself out as old as good Rhine wine, or, at most, as old
as Methuselah; but she thinks it is being more modest, if she ascribes
to herself at once, however much her face contradicts it, the extreme
old age which she can have only when her face has lain some thousands
of years in the earth, namely, thirty-two years and three months. The
merest dunce can see that she means only her future resurrection-age,
and not any earthly age,--because she does not deviate from that
standing year, which in eternity, indeed, when no human being can grow
an hour older, is a matter of course. This unity of time they introduce
into the _Intrigue drama_ of their life already in the thirtieth year,
for the reason that after that time in Paris no woman can any longer
dance in public, and (according to Helvetius) no genius can any longer
write in a masterly style. This last fact they perhaps took into
account in old times in Jerusalem, where any one after his thirtieth
year, but no sooner, could get an office as teacher.