as
if they had the plus sign before them.

I am afraid that old people found life rather a dull business in the
time of King David and his rich old subject and friend, Barzillai, who,
poor man, could not have read a wicked novel, nor enjoyed a symphony
concert, if they had had those luxuries in his day. There were no
pleasant firesides, for there were no chimneys. There were no daily
newspapers for the old man to read, and he could not read them if there
were, with his dimmed eyes, nor hear them read, very probably, with his
dulled ears. There was no tobacco, a soothing drug, which in its various
forms is a great solace to many old men and to some old women, Carlyle
and his mother used to smoke their pipes together, you remember.

Old age is infinitely more cheerful, for intelligent people at least,
than it was two or three thousand years ago. It is our duty, so far
as we can, to keep it so. There will always be enough about it that
is solemn, and more than enough, alas! that is saddening. But how much
there is in our times to lighten its burdens! If they that look out
at the windows be darkened, the optician is happy to supply them with
eye-glasses for use before the public, and spectacles for their hours
of privacy. If the grinders cease because they are few, they can be made
many again by a third dentition, which brings no toothache in its train.
By temperance and good Habits of life, proper clothing, well-warmed,
well-drained, and well-ventilated dwellings, and sufficient, not too
much exercise, the old man of our time may keep his muscular strength in
very good condition. I doubt if Mr. Gladstone, who is fast nearing his
eightieth birthday, would boast, in the style of Caleb, that he was as
good a man with his axe as he was when he was forty, but I would back
him,--if the match were possible, for a hundred shekels, against
that over-confident old Israelite, to cut down and chop up a cedar of
Lebanon. I know a most excellent clergyman, not far from my own time of
life, whom I would pit against any old Hebrew rabbi or Greek philosopher
of his years and weight, if they could return to the flesh, to run a
quarter of a mile on a good, level track.

We must not make too much of such exceptional cases of prolonged
activity. I often reproached my dear friend and classmate, Tames Freeman
Clarke, that his ceaseless labors made it impossible for his coevals to
enjoy the luxury of that repose which their years demanded. A wi