so fond of distributing,
should be buried with their bodies?

Let me counsel the young, then, to do every thing they can, consistently
with the rules of good breeding, to draw forth from the old the
treasures of which I have been speaking. Let them even make some
sacrifice of that buoyant feeling which, at their age, is so apt to
predominate. Let them conform, for the time, in some measure, to the
gravity of the aged, in order to gain their favor, and secure their
friendship and confidence. I do not ask them wholly to forsake society,
or their youthful pastimes for this purpose, or to become grave
_habitually_; for this would be requiring too much. But there are
moments when old people, however disgusted they may be with the young,
do so far unbend themselves as to enter into cheerful and instructive
conversation. I can truly say that when a boy, some of my happiest
hours were spent in the society of the aged--those too, who were not
always what they should have been. The old live in the past, as truly
as the young do in the future. Nothing more delights them than to
relate stories of 'olden time,' especially when themselves were the
_heroes_. But they will not relate them, unless there is somebody to
hear. Let the young avail themselves of this propensity, and make the
most of it. Some may have been heroes in war; some in travelling the
country; others in hunting, fishing, agriculture or the mechanic arts;
and it may be that here and there one will boast of his skill, and
relate stories of his success in that noblest of arts and
employments--the making of his fellow creatures wise, and good, and
happy.

In conversation with all these persons, you will doubtless hear much
that is uninteresting. But where will you find any thing pure or
perfect below the sun? The richest ores contain dross. At the same time
you cannot fail, unless the fault is your own, to learn many valuable
things from them all. From war stories, you will learn history; from
accounts of travels, geography, human character, manners and customs;
and from stories of the good or ill treatment which may have been
experienced, you will learn how to secure the one, and avoid the other.
From one person you will learn _one_ thing; from another something
else. Put these shreds together, and in time you will form quite a
number of pages in the great book of human nature. You may thus, in a
certain sense, live several lives in one.

One thing more is to be rem