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

Crabbed Age and Youth 9 3
an instructive experiment to make an old
man young again and leave him all his
savoir. I scarcely think he would put his
money in the Savings Bank after all ; I
doubt if he would be such an admirable son
as we are led to expect ; and as for his con-
duct in love, I believe firmly he would out-
Herod Herod, and put the whole of his new
compeers to the blush. Prudence is a wooden
Juggernaut, before whom Benjamin Franklin
walks with the portly air of a high priest,
and after whom dances many a success Ail
merchant in the character of Atys. But it
is not a deity to cultivate in youth. If a
man lives to any considerable age, it cannot
be denied that he laments his imprudences,
but I notice he often laments his youth a
deal more bitterly and with a more genuine
intonation.
It is customary to say that age should be
considered, because it comes last. It seems
just as much to the point, that youth comes
first. And the scale fairly kicks the beam,
if you go on to add that age, in a majority