leep again after a good
night's rest.

So far from youth being the happiest period of life, there is much
more truth in the remark made by Plato, at the beginning of the
_Republic_, that the prize should rather be given to old age, because
then at last a man is freed from the animal passion which has hitherto
never ceased to disquiet him. Nay, it may even be said that the
countless and manifold humors which have their source in this passion,
and the emotions that spring from it, produce a mild state of madness;
and this lasts as long as the man is subject to the spell of
the impulse--this evil spirit, as it were, of which there is no
riddance--so that he never really becomes a reasonable being until the
passion is extinguished.

There is no doubt that, in general, and apart from individual
circumstances and particular dispositions, youth is marked by a
certain melancholy and sadness, while genial sentiments attach to old
age; and the reason for this is nothing but the fact that the young
man is still under the service, nay, the forced labor, imposed by that
evil spirit, which scarcely ever leaves him a moment to himself. To
this source may be traced, directly or indirectly, almost all and
every ill that befalls or menaces mankind. The old man is genial and
cheerful because, after long lying in the bonds of passion, he can now
move about in freedom.

Still, it should not be forgotten that, when this passion is
extinguished, the true kernel of life is gone, and nothing remains but
the hollow shell; or, from another point of view, life then becomes
like a comedy, which, begun by real actors, is continued and brought
to an end by automata dressed in their clothes.

However that may be, youth is the period of unrest, and age of repose;
and from that very circumstance, the relative degree of pleasure
belonging to each may be inferred. The child stretches out its little
hands in the eager desire to seize all the pretty things that meet its
sight, charmed by the world because all its senses are still so young
and fresh. Much the same thing happens with the youth, and he displays
greater energy in his quest. He, too, is charmed by all the pretty
things and the many pleasing shapes that surround him; and forthwith
his imagination conjures up pleasures which the world can never
realize. So he is filled with an ardent desire for he knows not what
delights--robbing him of all rest and making happiness impossible.
But when old