The Union And Eastern Journal

The Blessings of Old Age. The venerable Josiah Quincy, Sen., ex-President of Harvard University, having been toasted at the Alumni dinner, made an excellent speech, from which the following is an extract:

"On every occasion, whether in public or private, an old man was sure to be reminded of his years. Why was this? Old age did not simply consist in length of days, for, as the President had quoted

'Wisdom is gray hairs in man.
And an unspotted life is his old age.'

If it arose from sympathy, there was no ground for it; the sympathy was absolutely thrown away. So far as his experience reached, old age was the happiest period of life. And why not? Had we not got rid of the nonsense of love, (laughter,) the folly of ambition, the grumbling of envy, the delusions of hope? He repeated that old age was the happiest portion of life,

provided that in youth and manhood the individual is obedient to the laws of nature regulating health and strength, and leads a life of respectability and usefulness.

In order to be happy and long lived, it was important that there should be a harmony between the beginning of life and the end.

The young man should cultivate and foster the qualities which he sees to be respectable and esteemed in the old, and the old man, on the other hand, should retain and seek to perpetuate the feelings and vivacity of youth.

The ex-President closed with this sentiment:

"The hoary hairs with which wisdom crowns the young, and the unspotted life which is the crown of man at every period of his existence." (Much cheering.)