youth, when our
consciousness is lively and open to every sort of impression, have
this privilege--that then the seeds are sown and the buds come forth;
it is the springtime of the mind. Deep truths may be perceived, but
can never be excogitated--that is to say, the first knowledge of
them is immediate, called forth by some momentary impression. This
knowledge is of such a kind as to be attainable only when the
impressions are strong, lively and deep; and if we are to be
acquainted with deep truths, everything depends upon a proper use of
our early years. In later life, we may be better able to work upon
other people,--upon the world, because our natures are then finished
and rounded off, and no more a prey to fresh views; but then the
world is less able to work upon us. These are the years of action
and achievement; while youth is the time for forming fundamental
conceptions, and laying down the ground-work of thought.

In youth it is the outward aspect of things that most engages us;
while in age, thought or reflection is the predominating quality
of the mind. Hence, youth is the time for poetry, and age is more
inclined to philosophy. In practical affairs it is the same: a man
shapes his resolutions in youth more by the impression that the
outward world makes upon him; whereas, when he is old, it is thought
that determines his actions. This is partly to be explained by the
fact that it is only when a man is old that the results of outward
observation are present in sufficient numbers to allow of their being
classified according to the ideas they represent,--a process which in
its turn causes those ideas to be more fully understood in all their
bearings, and the exact value and amount of trust to be placed in
them, fixed and determined; while at the same time he has grown
accustomed to the impressions produced by the various phenomena
of life, and their effects on him are no longer what they were.
Contrarily, in youth, the impressions that things make, that is to
say, the outward aspects of life, are so overpoweringly strong,
especially in the case of people of lively and imaginative
disposition, that they view the world like a picture; and their chief
concern is the figure they cut in it, the appearance they present;
nay, they are unaware of the extent to which this is the case. It is
a quality of mind that shows itself--if in no other way--in that
personal vanity, and that love of fine clothes, which distinguish
y