Yet shall it appeare (if the thinge be brought still
further to the teste, and, from an Imagination or Dreame, become an
actual Realitie), that he will shrinke from and decline that which he
did erste so ardently sigh for and covet. And the reason of this is as
follows, to-wit: That Habit or Custome hath brought him more to love
and affect those very ways and conditions of life, yea, those
inconveniences and deficiencies which he useth to deplore and abhorre,
than that Crown of Golde or Jewel of Happiness whose withholding he
hath all his life lamented. Hence we may learne, that what is past, is
dead, and that though thoughts be free, nature is ever captive, and
loveth her chaine."
This is too lugubrious and cynical not to have some truth in it; but I
am unwilling to believe that more than half of it is true. The author
himself was evidently an old man, and therefore a prejudiced judge; and
he did not make allowances for the range and variety of temperament.
Age is not a matter of years, and scarcely of experience. The only
really old persons are the selfish ones.
Pages:
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138