e extreme rear and first beginnings of the
march. There is our true base; that is not only the beginning, but the
perennial spring of our faculties; and grandfather William can retire
upon occasion into the green enchanted forest of his boyhood.

*****

The regret we have for our childhood is not wholly justifiable: so much
a man may lay down without fear of public ribaldry; for although we
shake our heads over the change, we are not unconscious of the manifold
advantages of our new state. What we lose in generous impulse we more
than gain in the habit of generously watching others; and the capacity
to enjoy Shakespeare may balance a lost appetite for playing at
soldiers.

*****

If a man lives to any considerable age, it cannot be denied that he
laments his imprudences, but I notice he often laments his youth a deal
more bitterly and with a more genuine intonation.

*****

There is something irreverent in the speculation, but perhaps the want
of power has more to do with wise resolutions of age than we are always
willing to admit.

*****

People may lay down their lives with cheerfulness in the sure
expectation of a blessed immortality; but that is a different affair
from giving up youth, with all its admirable pleasures, in the hope of
a better quality of gruel in a more than problematical, nay, more than
improbable, old age.

*****

Childhood must pass away, and then youth, as surely as, age approaches.
The true wisdom is to be always seasonable, and to change with a good
grace in changing circumstances. To love playthings well as a child, to
lead an adventurous and honourable youth, and to settle when the time
arrives, into a green and smiling age, is to be a good artist in life
and deserve well of yourself and your neighbour.

*****

Age asks with timidity to be spared intolerable pain; youth, taking
fortune by the beard, demands joy like a right.

*****

It is not possible to keep the mind in a state of accurate balance and
blank; and even if you could do so, instead of coming ultimately to the
right conclusion, you would be very apt to remain in a state of balance
and blank to perpetuity. Even in quite intermediate stages, a dash of
enthusiasm is not a thing to be ashamed of in the retrospect: if St.
Paul had not been a very zealous Pharisee, he would have been a colder
Christian. For my part, I look back to the time when I was a Socialist
with something like regret. I have convinced myself (