66 same influence. Antonio de Guevara only speaks the sense of all Catholic instruction where he says, "It would be a horrible scandal to see only white hairs on the heads of old knights, and to find nothing but vanity and lies upon their tongues. The old," he continues, " often complain that the young will not converse with them; but truly, if there be a fault here, it is all on their side; for if an old talker once begins, he will never finish; so that a discreet person would rather go six leagues on foot than hear him three hours*." Against worldliness in old age the voice of Catholicism is powerful. "Væ vobis quia declinavit dies-that is," adds St. Anthony of Padua, "the day of grace and the light of interior and natural condition-quia longiores factæ umbræ vespere tendente lumine ad occasum. And truly it often happens that as our life declines to its setting, these shadows, that is, the loves of earthly things, increase. For men, feeling their strength fail, seek the more to live+." St. Bernard has terrible words for such old persons: "Maledictum caput canum et cor vanum, caput tremulum et cor emulum, canities in vertice et pernicies in mente; facies rugosa et lingua nugosa, cutis sicca et fides ficta; visus caligans et caritas claudicans; labium pendens et dens detrahens; virtus debilis et vita flebilis; dies uberes et fructus steriles, amici multi et actus stulti." Catholic poets themselves seem inspired by the theologian in expressing their horror of the vices which sometimes degrade the old, and in giving them counsel. 'Man," says Don Fernando, with Calderon, "be ready always for eternity; and delay not till infirmities admonish thee, for thou art thyself thy worst infirmity." 66 But passing from such instructions, which have been repeatedly heard on former roads, let us only mark the facts which are here presented to us in the marvellous change and contrast produced in the character of old age, when it has been submitted to the central attraction, and when its years, though they show white, are worthy, judicious, able, and heroical. The best proof we can have, perhaps, will be to behold a living example; let us then only see approach one of these well-directed and happy old men, in whom we must revere "The symbol of a snow-white beard, Bedewed with meditative tears, Dropped from the lenient cloud of years." Let him, I say, only come up, and we may close our books. "O infinite virtue ! com'st thou smiling from The world's great snare uncaught?" L'Horloge des Princes, liv. iii. 1124. + Serm. Fev. iii. in Passione. As Massinger says, "His face denoteth fulness of content, and glory hath a part in't." In the catacombs one finds the figure or imprint of a seal, which represents the sole of a foot or shoe, on which is written "in Deo," to signify that man is a traveller, and that the end of his pilgrimage is God. They who, in a general way, correspond with this symbol, are witnesses to prove the efficacy of Catholicism in forming old age to virtue, their path being that of the just, resembling a light which shines more and more until the perfect day. Though rocks and currents have been long past, the voyage of the soul, we are told, is often less safe in the calm of age than amidst the gales of youth and maturity; for, as Dante says, A bark, that all her way across the sea Ran straight and speedy, perish at the last But central principles ward off such catastrophes, when to the Church, as the guardian of all that is wise and beautiful, an old man says, For then, as Don Antonio de Guevara recommends, when writing to an aged commander, the old man, intent upon some noble object, passes much of his time actively employed, serving God and his fellow-men, visiting poor people, hospitals, and holy places; like the Marquis de Chenoise, founder of the convent of Mercy, on the estate which bears that name in the diocese of Sens, who, in his old age, living in retirement, used every day, for some purpose of charity or public service, to repair to these ransomers of captives, and then, on his return, spend the afternoon in study at the end of the vast gardens of his castle. Old men, when amerced of central principles, cease to take a great interest in any thing. That hearty energy which made youth so generous has left them. A pleasant story was current in the humbler classes lately, of a young man who received half-a-crown to raise an applausive voice in one of our theatres in favour of an actor on his first appearance, and who clapped and shouted so loud that he got turned out for his pains. Old age does not offend in this way of exceeding in what its duty or its gratitude requires; but Catholicism has the secret of reviving this kind of * Par. 13. Hist. de l'Ord. de la Mercy, 885. + Par. 26. spirit in the decline of life, and of turning it to excellent account. Who has not remarked the prodigious activity of the old French curate, the old Catholic gentleman, who has some great interest of religion, or of his country, or of mankind at heart, and who, when surprise is expressed at his evincing such sustained energy, will reply perhaps with Cicero, saying, “ Nihil autem magis cavendum est senectuti, quam ne languori se desidiæque dedat *;" or point at the brave old oak, and repeat the lines alluding to it, "Its leaf, though late in spring it shares The zephyr's gentle sigh, As late and long in autumn wears Type of an honest English heart, It opes not at a breath, But having open'd plays its part What an indomitable spirit in braving every danger and embracing suffering is displayed by those aged confessors of the faith who rise up from time to time in the Catholic Church to astonish a persecuting government, and edify the whole of Christendom, as in the instance of Vicari, the octogenarian archbishop of Fribourg, at the present moment! England, in the time of her troubles, had many such examples. Father Forrest, the director of Queen Catherine, writing to her from Newgate, used these words, which his death did not belie "Christ Jesu give you, daughter and lady mine, above all mortal delights, which are of brief continuance, the joy of seeing his divine presence for evermore! Pray that I may fight the battle to which I am called, and finally overcome. Would it become this white beard and these hoary locks to give way in aught that concerns the glory of God? Would it become, lady mine, an old man to be appalled with childish fear who has seen sixty-four years of life, and forty of those has worn the habit of the glorious St. Francis? Weaned from terrestrial things, what is there for me, if I have not strength to aspire to those of God? I send your majesty my rosary, for they tell me that of my life but three days remain." Homer seems to regard as miserable the old man who likes to exert himself. Σχέτλιος ἐσσι, γεραιέ· σὺ μὲν πόνου οὔποτε λήγεις . To sleep on soft beds, and to partake of the best fare, seems, according to this poet, to be the privilege of old age—ǹ yàp díkŋ 66 near the iori yeρóvTwv*. But it must be acknowledged that the ancients in general were more disposed to admire than to pity examples of activity in old age. Diogenes, being far advanced in years, was advised to relax in his labours. "What!" said he, end of a race ought not one to strive the more ?" They had great examples, too, of such perseverance. Strabo, after completing forty-three books of history, as a continuation of Polybius, had the courage, in the eighty-third year of his age, to commence his great geographical work. Plato died in his eighty-first year, pen in hand. Isocrates composed his Panathenaicus, a most noble book, full of an ardent spirit, in his ninety-fourth year; and Cato pleaded like a young man in the eighty-fifth year of his age. Chrysippus, in his eightieth year, left a subtle volume. Sophocles, at the age nearly of a hundred, wrote his Edipus Coloneus. Simonides, when he was eighty, wrote poems. Memorable was the active, hardy old age of M. Valerius Corvus, who completed his hundredth year in full activity; and that of Metellus, whose hand never trembled at the same age; and that of Q. Fabius Maximus, and of Hiero of Sicily, and of Masinissa, king of Numidia, who went bareheaded in cold and rain, and that of Gorgias, who had nothing to abate from his exertions in the 107th year of his age. These instances are admirable; but they do not put to shame what Catholicism can produce in later ages, as the literary annals of any one order, like that of the Benedictines, will testify. Dom Luc d'Achery, having finished his thirteen volumes of the Spicilegium, and being at a very advanced age, for a short moment thought it time to rest from his labours, and prepare for death. But he soon grew weary of doing nothing for the public, and resolved to continue that work, for which he had already materials sufficient to form six volumes more. In spite of his years, therefore, he resumed his labours ; but he was then nearer death than he thought. Dom Beaugendre, at the age of eighty, published, with learned notes, and after collating many manuscripts, the works of the venerable Hildebert, archbishop of Tours, as also those of Marbode, bishop of Rennes. But the labours of Montfaucon present perhaps the most remarkable example of mental energy in old age. In a letter to Quirini he apologizes for not having attended to some former literary commission, and says, "I confess that I forgot it, and your eminence ought not to be surprised; for in the eighty-second year of my age I am more overwhelmed with work than during any other period of my life. I am at present at the thirteenth and last volume of St. Chrysostom, which gives me great fatigue; and I am printing at the same time the Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum Nova, in * xxiv. 254. two volumes in folio, which will be finished before Whitsuntide. Besides, added to all this, I have been nearly two months laid up in the infirmary with a wound which I gave my leg, but I am now well." It would be easy to add similar examples from the annals of the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and Jesuits; but as our last glass but one is now turned, and runs apace, we cannot delay to produce them. The Baron de Prelle is greatly struck at finding that D'Andilly translated the history of Josephus when he had attained the age of eighty-one; but how many instances of equal and greater courage could be found among the religious orders, as well as in the secular society which Catholicism inspires! "No age," says Marinæus Siculus, "is too great for learning. King Alphonso, the uncle of King Ferdinand, after spending his life in wars, at the age of sixty began to learn Latin like a boy, and succeeded in acquiring a perfect knowledge of that language +." Moreover, in every sphere examples could be multiplied of Catholic old men, like Michel Agnolo Buonaroti, full of energy and activity to the last; for faith requires men not to falter in well-doing, nor to forget such lessons as the old poet teaches in the lines "Non aliter quam qui adverso vix flumine lembum Atque illum in præceps prono rapit alveus amni‡." In the year 1566, when Vasari was at Venice, he went to visit Titian, and found him, although then very old, still with the pencils in his hand, and painting busily. Jacopo Sansovino, so renowned in sculpture, and so eminent in the grace of God, continued to labour like a young man up to the age of ninety-three years; when one day feeling himself somewhat weary, he lay down in his bed to repose himself, and without any illness, after six weeks, departed. Bronzino, in his sixty-fifth year, was no less enamoured of his art than he was as a youth, undertaking still the greatest work. The amiable and religious Vasari was himself interrupted by death in painting the great cupola of the Duomo at Florence, in the sixty-third year of his age. In the civil, and even in the military service of states there are similar examples. During the war of Alphonso V. in Africa, the duke of Braganza, who was named Regent on his absence in 1460, had begged permission to accompany him on the expedition, though he was in his ninetieth year. For him the poet seems to have composed these lines : "Nunc erat, ut posito deberem fine laborum Vivere, me nullo sollicitante metu; *Corresp. tom. iii, lett. ccccviii. + Mar. Sic. Epist. Georg. i. 200. |