lections of letters.

I

THE BLESSINGS OF OLD AGE[4]

Nor even now do I feel the want of the strength of a young man, no
more than when a young man I felt the want of the strength of the bull
or of the elephant. What one has, that one ought to use; and whatever
you do, you should do it with all your strength. For what expression
can be more contemptible than that of Milo[5] of Crotona, who, when he
was now an old man, and was looking at the prize-fighters exercising
themselves on the course, is reported to have looked at his arms,
and, weeping over them, to have said, "But these, indeed, are now
dead." Nay, foolish man, not these arms so much as yourself; for you
never derived your nobility from yourself, but from your chest and
your arms. Nothing of the kind did Sextus AElius ever say, nothing of
the kind many years before did Titus Coruncanius, nothing lately did
Publius Crassus; by whom instructions in jurisprudence were given to
their fellow citizens, and whose wisdom was progressive even to their
latest breath. For the orator, I fear lest he be enfeebled by old age;
for eloquence is a gift not of mind only, but also of lungs and
strength. On the whole, that melodiousness in the voice is graceful, I
know not how, even in old age; which, indeed, I have not lost, and you
see my years.

Yet there is a graceful style of eloquence in an old man,
unimpassioned and subdued, and very often the elegant and gentle
discourse of an eloquent old man wins for itself a hearing; and if you
have not yourself the power to produce this effect, yet you may be
able to teach it to Scipio and Laelius. For what is more delightful
than old age surrounded with the studious attention of youth? Shall we
not leave even such a resource to old age, as to teach young men,
instruct them, train them to every department of duty? an employment,
indeed, than which what can be more noble? But, for my part, I thought
the Cneius and Publius Scipios,[6] and your two grandfathers, L.
AEmilius and P. Africanus, quite happy in the attendance of noble
youths; nor are any preceptors of liberal accomplishments to be deemed
otherwise than happy, tho their strength hath fallen into old age and
failed; altho that very failure of strength is more frequently caused
by the follies of youth than by those of old age; for a lustful and
intemperate youth transmits to old age an exhausted body. Cyrus too,
in Xenophon, in that discourse which he delivered on his de