AGE.

toil, or accident. The passions kill men sometimes, even suddenly. The common expression, choked with passion, has little exaggeration in it; for even though not suddenly fatal, strong passions shorten life. Strong-bodied men often die young-weak men live longer than the strong, for the strong use their strength, and the weak have none to The latter take care of themselves; the former do not. As it is with the body, so it is with the mind and temper. The strong are apt to break, or, like the candle, to run; the weak burn out. The inferior avimals, which

use.

live, in general, regular and temperate lives, have generally their prescribed term of years.

The horse lives 25 years; the ox 15 or 20; the lion about 20; the dog 10 or 12; the rabbit 8; the guinea-pig 6 or 7 years. These numbers all bear a similar proportion to the time the animal takes to grow its full size. But man, of all the animals, is the one that seldom comes up to his average. He ought to live 100 years, according to this physiological law, for five times twenty are one hundred; but instead of that he scarcely reaches, on the average, four times his growing period; the cat six times; and the rabbit even eight times the standard of measurement. The reason is obvious-man is not only the most irregular and the most intemperate, but the most laborious and hard-worked of all animals. He is also the most irritable of all animals; and there is reason to believe, though we cannot tell what an animal secretly feels, that, more than any other animal, man cherishes wrath to keep it warm, and consumes himself with the fire of its own secret reflections.

AGE-Rejoicing with Youth.

St. John.

AGE.

Gladdening his spirit: and, his theme the past, How eloquent he is! His thoughts flow fast: And while his heart (oh, can the heart grow old ? False are the tales that in the world are told !) Swells in his voice, he knows not where to end; Like one discoursing of an absent friend.

Rogers. AGE (MIDDLE) the Happiest Part of Life.

Probably the happiest period in life most frequently is in middle age, when the eager passions of youth are cooled, and the infirmities of age not yet begun; as we see that the

shadows, which are at morning and evening so large, almost entirely disappear at mid-day.

Dr. Arnold.

How happy is the evening tide of life,
When phlegm has quench'd our passions,
trifling out

The feeble remnant of our silly days
In follies, such as dotage best is pleased with,

That toss the thoughtful, active, busy mind. Otway. AGE (OLD)-Cares of.

When side by side the archers' bows are strung:
His to prescribe the place, adjudge the prize,
Envying no more the young their energies
Than they an old man, when his words are wise;
His a delight how pure, without alloy :
Strong in their strength, rejoicing in their joy!
Now in their turn assisting, they repay
The anxious cares of many and many a day;
And now by those he loves relieved, restored,
His very wants and weaknesses afford
A feeling of enjoyment. In his walks,
Leaning on them, how oft he stops and talks,
While they look up! Their questions, their
replies,

Fresh as the welling waters, round him rise,

Care keeps his watch in every old man's ere. Shakspeare.

AGE (OLD) - Characteristics of.

These old fellows

Have their ingratitude in them hereditary: Their blood is caked, 'tis cold, it seldom flows; 'Tis lack of kindly warmth: they are not kind; And nature. as it grows again towards earth, Is fashion'd for the journey, dull and heavy.

Ibid.

The eye of age looks meek into my heart! the voice of age echoes mournfully through it! the hoary head and palsied hand of age plead irresistibly for its sympathies ! I venerate old age; and I love not the man who can look

AGE.

without emotion upon the sunset of life, when the dusk of evening begins to gather over the watery eye, and the shadows of twilight grow broader and deeper upon the understanding. Longfellow.

These are the effects of doting age,
Vain doubts, and idle cares, and over-caution;
The second nonage of a soul more wise,
But now decay'd, and sunk into the socket,
Peeping by fits, anl giving simple light.

AGE (OLD) - Difficulties of.

It is difficult to grow old gracefully.

AGE (OLD) - Duties of.

AGE.

sixty-seventh year of my age is, that, notwithstanding certain ailments and infirmities, and the privations they occasion, it is just as happy as all the preceding seasons were, though in a different way, so happy, as to cause no regret that they have passed, and no desire to exchange what is, for what has been. If youth has hopes, and prospects, and wishes, that enchant it, age has no inferiority even in this respect.

Dryden.

AGE (OLD)-Holiness of. What is age

Turner.

Age should fly concourse, cover in retreat Defects of judgment, and the will subdue; Walk thoughtful on the silent solemn shore Of that vast ocean it must sail so soon. Young. AGE (OLD) - Energy of.

Though old, he still retained

His manly sense and energy of mind. Virtuous and wise he was, but not severe; • He still remembered that he once was young: His easy presence check'd no decent joy. Him even the dissolute admired; for he A graceful looseness when he pleased put on, And, laughing, could instruct. Armstrong.

And these same crosses spoil me. Shakspeare. AGE (OLD) - Marks of.

Time's chariot-wheels make their carriageroad in the fairest face. La Rochefoucauld.

AGE (OLD)-Miseries of.
Crook'd-back'd he was, tooth-shaken, and
blear-eyed,

Went on three feet, and sometime crept on four;
With old lame bones that rattled by his side,
His scalp all bald, and he with eld forlore,
His wither'd fist still knocking at Death's door; |
Trembling and driv'ling as he draws his breath,
For brief the shape and messenger of Death.
Thomas Sackville.

There is an order Of mortals on the earth, who do become Old in their youth, and die ere middle age. Byron. AGE (OLD) - Premonitions of.

In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease, because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened; and the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low; also, when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond-tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets. Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Solomon.

There is a solitude which old age feels to be as natural and satisfying as that rest which seems such an irksomeness to youth, but which gradually grows into the best blessing of our lives; and there is another solitude, so full of peace and hope, that it is like Jacob's sleep in the wilderness, at the foot of the ladder of angels. "All things are less dreadful than they seem." And it may be that the extreme loneliness which, viewed afar off, appears to an unmarried woman as one of the

saddest of the inevitable results of her lot, shall by that time have lost all its pain, and be regarded but as the quiet, dreamy hour "between the lights;" when the day's work is done, and we lean back, closing our eyes, to think it all over before we finally go to rest, or to look forward in faith and hope, unto the coming morning. Hughes.

AGE (OLD) - Talkativeness of.

Old age is talkative, and I may learn Somewhat of moment from him. Whitehead.

AGE (OLD) - Tranquillity of.

To the intelligent and virtuous, old age presents a scene of tranquil enjoyments, of obedient appetite, of well-regulated affections, of maturity in knowledge, and of calm preparation for immortality. In this serene and dignified state, placed as it were on the confines of two worlds, the mind of a good man reviews what is past with the complacency of an approving conscience in the mercy of God, and with devout aspirations towards His eternal and ever-increasing favour. Percival. AGE (OLD) - Tranquillity for.

One's age should be tranquil, as one's childhood should be playful; hard work, at either extremity of human existence, seems to me out of place: the morning and the evening should be alike cool and peaceful; at mid-day the sun may burn, and men may labour under it. Dr. Arnold.

There is another fact I would dare to match

with all the upholstery confession of the

middle ages. Show me the equivalent to a

money-loving people putting its hand into its I ows pocket, not to build proud towers, but to emancipate degraded savages; giving twenty millions, not at the bidding of an imperious monarch or a tyrannical priesthood, but at the spontaneous call of the national conscience, and by the immediate instrumentality of the national will. There is a moral grandeur in this "money grant" that sinks the Pyramids into littleness. As for Christian heroism, what can history chronicle or poetry invent, of Godfrey, Richard, or St. Louis, that does not pale before the simple details of that poor despised Patagonian mission of the other day? I will not content myself with even the names of "Nightingale" and her noble sisters.

Rev. E. Young. AGREEABLENESS-Characteristics of. We may say of agreeableness, as distinct from beauty, that it consists in a symmetry of which we know not the rules, and a secret conformity of the features to each other, and to the air and complexion of the person.

La Rochefoucauld. AGREEABLENESS-of Manners.

The true art of being agreeable, is to appear well pleased with all the company, and rather to seem well entertained with them, than to bring entertainment to them. A man thus disposed, perhaps, may have not much learning, nor any wit; but if he has common sense and something friendly in his behaviour, it conciliates men's minds more than the brightest parts without this disposition. It is true, indeed, that we should not dissemble and flatter in company; but a man may be very agreeable, strictly consistent with truth and sincerity, by a prudent silence where he cannot concur, and a pleasing assent where he can. Now and then you meet with a person so exactly formed to please, that he will gain upon every one that hears or beholds him: this disposition is not merely the gift of nature, but frequently the effect of much knowledge of the world, and a command over the passions. Addison.

AIR.

AGRICULTURIST. - Life of the.

In a moral point of view, the life of the agriculturist is the most pure and holy of any class of men; pure, because it is the most healthful, and vice can hardly find time to contaminate it; and holy, because it brings the Deity perpetually before his view, giving him thereby the most exalted notions of supreme power, and the most fascinating and endearing view of moral benignity. The agriculturist views the Deity in His works; he

contemplates the divine economy in the arrangement of the seasons; and he hails Nature immediately presiding over every object that strikes his eyes; he witnesses many of her great and beauteous operations, and her reproductive faculties; his heart insensibly expands, from his minute acquaintance with multifarious objects, all in themselves original; whilst that degree of retirement in which he is placed from the bustling haunts of mankind, keeps alive in his breast his natural affections, unblunted by an extensive and perpetual intercourse with man in a more enlarged, and therefore in a more corrupt state of society. His habits become his principles, and he is ready to risk his life to maintain them.

Lord John Russell.

AIR (Vitiated) -Fatal to Life.

One cannot try experiments on human beings as on animals, but accident and disease frequently furnish us with experiments made

to our hand. What has been related of the birds is confirmed by an accident which befel two young Frenchwomen. They were in a room heated by a coke stove. One of them was suffocated, and fell senseless on the ground. The other, who was in bed, suffering from typhoid fever, resisted the poisonous influence of the atmosphere, so as to be able to scream till assistance came. They were both rescued, but the healthy girl, who had succumbed to the noxious air, was found to have a paralysis of the left arm, which lasted for more than six months. Here, as in the case of the sparrows, we find the paradoxical result to be, that the poisonous action of a vitiated air is better resisted by the feeble, sickly organism, than by the vigorous, healthy organism. This paradox admits of a physiological explanation. In the vitiated air of a German Kneipe, as in that of the houses of the poor, we find those who have had time to adjust themselves to it, breathing without apparent inconvenience, although each new-comer feels the air to be vitiated; and because they "get accustomed to it," people very naturally suppose that no injurious effect can follow. Here lies the dangerous fallacy. They get accustomed

AIR.

to it, indeed, and only because they do so are they contented to remain in it; but at what price? by what means? By a gradual depression of all the functions of nutrition and secretion. In this depressed condition less oxygen is absorbed, and there is less needed in the atmosphere. A vitiated air will suffice for the respiration of a depressed organism, as it would amply suffice for the respiration of a coldblooded animal. When we enter a vitiated atmosphere, our breathing becomes laborious; the consequence of this is a depression of all the organic functions, and then the breathing is easy again, because we no longer require so much oxygen, and we no longer produce so much carbonic acid. Were it not for this adjustment of the organism to the medium, by a gradual depression of the functions, continued existence in a vitiated atmosphere would be impossible; we see the vigorous bird perish instantaneously in air which would sustain the enfeebled bird for upwards of an hour. Thus does physiology explain the paradox; but at the same time it points out the fallacy of supposing that bad air can be harmless because get accustomed" to it. However fortunate a circumstance for those who have to breathe bad air, that the organism is quickly depressed to such a point as to render such air respirable, no one will deny that depressions of this kind are necessarily injurious, especially when frequently experienced.

we

And there were sights that none had seen before: And hollow, strange, unprecedented sounds, And earnest whisperings ran along the hills, At dead of night: and long, deep, endless sighs, Came from the dreary vale; and from the waste Came horrid shrieks, and fierce unearthly groans. Pollok.

ALCHEMIST-The.

And this Doctor, Your sooty, smoky-bearded compeer, he Will close you so much gold in a bolt's head, And on a turn, convey in the stead another, With sublimed mercury, that shall burst i' the heat,

And all fly out in fumo.

ALIENATION-Evils of.

Ben Jonson.

Nothing presents a more mournful aspect than a family divided by anger and animosity. Unhappily, however, this is not a very rare occurrence. We even behold at times brothers themselves so indifferent towards each other, so wanting in affection, or even in a state of such hostility among themselves, that they appear as if they had been cherished by the same fond heart, and fed at the breast of the

ALPS.

We

same fond mother, only to be for ever divided
by their tastes and manner of thinking.
also often observe sisters maintain, in their
relations with each other, so much ill-will,
animosity, and resentment, and living in such
secret but continual irritation of mind towards
each other, that even the very stranger, when
forced to be a witness of this melancholy
state of feeling in the family, cannot but be
shocked and pained. Indeed it is but too
common to behold individuals, united by ties
of blood, live together upon a much less inti-
mate footing than with strangers, and show
themselves much less serviceable, and much
less obliging the one to the other, than they
are, when occasion requires, to persons whom
they know not.
Zschokke.

ALLEGIANCE-Tempted too far.
Allegiance, tempted too far, is like
A sword well temper'd on an anvil tried,
That press'd too hardly may in pieces fly:
An overburthen'd trust may treach'ry prove,
And be too late repented.

ALLEGORIES-Use of.

Massinger.

Allegories, when well chosen, are like so many tracks of light in a discourse, that make everything about them clear and beautiful. Addison.

ALPS-The.

Dark in colour, robed with everlasting mourning, for ever tottering like a great fortress shaken by war, fearful as much in their weakness as in their strength, and yet gathered after every fall into darker frowns and unbumiliated threatening; for ever incapable of comfort or healing from herb or flower, nourishing no root in their crevices, touched by no hue of life on buttress or ledge, but to the utmost desolate; knowing no shaking of leaves in the wind nor of grass beside the stream-no other motion but their own mortal shivering, the dreadful crumbling of atom from atom in their corrupting stones; knowing no sound of living voice or living tread, cheered neither by the kid's bleat nor the marmot's cry; haunted only by uninterrupted echoes from afar off, wandering hither and thither among their walls, unable to escape, and by the hiss of angry torrents, and sometimes the shriek of a bird that flits near the face of them, and sweeps frightened back from under their shadow into the gulf of air. And sometimes, when the echo has fainted, and the wind has carried the sound of the torrent away, and the bird has vanished, and the mouldering stones are still for a little timea brown moth, opening and shutting its wings upon a grain of dust, may be the only thing