Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1887 - Virginibus Puerisque, and other papers

Crabbed Age and YojitJi 89
and travelling in the common orbit of men's
opinions. I submit to this, as I would
submit to gout or gray hair, as a concomi-
tant of growing age or else of failing animal
heat ; but I do not acknowledge that it
is necessarily a change for the better — I
daresay it is deplorably for the worse. I
have no choice in the business, and can no
more resist this tendency of my mind than
I could prevent my body from beginning to
totter and decay. If I am spared (as the
phrase runs) I shall doubtless outlive some
troublesome desires ; but I am in no hurry
about that ; nor, when the time comes, shall
I plume myself on the immunity. Just in
the same way, I do not greatly pride myself
on having outlived my belief in the fairy tales
of Socialism. Old people have faults of their
own ; they tend to become cowardly, niggardly,
and suspicious. Whether from the growth
of experience or the decline of animal heat,
I see that age leads to these and certain other
faults ; and it follows, of course, that while in
one sense I hope I am journeying towards the