. At first he hardly
notices any difference at all, as the greater part of his expenses is
covered by the interest of his securities; and if the deficit is
but slight, he pays no attention to it. But the deficit goes on
increasing, until he awakes to the fact that it is becoming more
serious every day: his position becomes less and less secure, and he
feels himself growing poorer and poorer, while he has no expectation
of this drain upon his resources coming to an end. His fall from
wealth to poverty becomes faster every moment--like the fall of a
solid body in space, until at last he has absolutely nothing left.
A man is truly in a woeful plight if both the terms of this
comparison--his vital energy and his wealth--really begin to melt away
at one and the same time. It is the dread of this calamity that makes
love of possession increase with age.

On the other hand, at the beginning of life, in the years before we
attain majority, and for some little time afterwards--the state of our
vital energy puts us on a level with those who each year lay by a part
of their interest and add it to their capital: in other words, not
only does their interest come in regularly, but the capital is
constantly receiving additions. This happy condition of affairs is
sometimes brought about--with health as with money--under the watchful
care of some honest guardian. O happy youth, and sad old age!

Nevertheless, a man should economize his strength even when he is
young. Aristotle[1] observes that amongst those who were victors at
Olympia only two or three gained a prize at two different periods,
once in boyhood and then again when they came to be men; and the
reason of this was that the premature efforts which the training
involved, so completely exhausted their powers that they failed to
last on into manhood. As this is true of muscular, so it is still more
true of nervous energy, of which all intellectual achievements are the
manifestation. Hence, those infant prodigies--_ingenia praecoda_--the
fruit of a hot-house education, who surprise us by their cleverness as
children, afterwards turn out very ordinary folk. Nay, the manner in
which boys are forced into an early acquaintance with the ancient
tongues may, perhaps, be to blame for the dullness and lack of
judgment which distinguish so many learned persons.

[Footnote 1: _Politics_.]

I have said that almost every man's character seems to be specially
suited to some one period of