Of Youth AND AGE

A MAN that is young in years, may be old in

hours, if he have lost no time.  But that hap-

peneth rarely.  Generally, youth is like the first

cogitations, not so wise as the second.  For there is

a youth in thoughts, as well as in ages.  And yet the

invention of young men, is more lively than that

of old; and imaginations stream into their minds

better, and, as it were, more divinely.  Natures that

have much heat, and great and violent desires and

perturbations, are not ripe for action, till they have

passed the meridian of their years; as it was with

Julius Caesar and Septimius Severus.  Of the latter,

of whom it is said, Juventutem egit erroribus, imo

furoribus, plenam.  And yet he was the ablest em-

peror, almost, of all the list.  But reposed natures

may do well in youth.  As it is seen in Augustus

Caesar, Cosmus Duke of Florence, Gaston de Foix,

and others.  On the other side, heat and vivacity in

age, is an excellent composition for business.

Young men are fitter to invent, than to judge; fitter

for execution, than for counsel; and fitter for new

projects, than for settled business.  For the experi-

ence of age, in things that fall within the compass

of it, directeth them; but in new things, abuseth

them.
 
 

The errors of young men, are the ruin of busi-

ness; but the errors of aged men, amount but to

this, that more might have been done, or sooner.

Young men, in the conduct and manage of actions,

embrace more than they can hold; stir more than

they can quiet; fly to the end, without considera-

tion of the means and degrees; pursue some

few principles, which they have chanced upon

absurdly; care not to innovate, which draws un-

known inconveniences; use extreme remedies at

first; and, that which doubleth all errors, will not

acknowledge or retract them; like an unready

horse, that will neither stop nor turn.  Men of age

object too much, consult too long, adventure too

little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business

home to the full period, but content themselves

with a mediocrity of success.  Certainly it is good to

compound employments of both; for that will be

good for the present, because the virtues of either

age, may correct the defects of both; and good for

succession, that young men may be learners, while

men in age are actors; and, lastly, good for extern

accidents, because authority followeth old men,

and favor and popularity, youth.  But for the moral

part, perhaps youth will have the pre-eminence, as

age hath for the politic.  A certain rabbin, upon the

text, Your young men shall see visions, and your

old men shall dream dreams, inferreth that young

men, are admitted nearer to God than old, because

vision, is a clearer revelation, than a dream.  And

certainly, the more a man drinketh of the world,

the more it intoxicateth; and age doth profit rather

in the powers of understanding, than in the virtues

of the will and affections.  There be some, have an

over-early ripeness in their years, which fadeth

betimes.  These are, first, such as have brittle wits,

the edge whereof is soon turned; such as was Her-

mogenes the rhetorician, whose books are exceed-

ing subtle; who afterwards waxed stupid.  A second

sort, is of those that have some natural dispositions

which have better grace in  youth, than in age;

such as is a fluent and luxuriant speech; which

becomes youth well, but not age: so Tully saith of

Hortensius, Idem manebat, neque idem decebat.

The third is of such, as take too high a strain at the

first, and are magnanimous, more than tract of

years can uphold.  As was Scipio Africanus, of

whom Livy saith in effect, Ultima primis cedebant.