XIII YOUTH AND AGE. YOUTH is the morning, and Age the evening, of Earth. The one faces the Meridian, with the gayety and ardor of undisciplined feelings and unmeasured powers;-the other stands averted from its hot splendor forever, grave, calm, and submissive-the Book of Experience read, the Cup of Sensation drained, entirely. To one, the world is new, and bright, and beautiful,-peopled with Miracles and guarded by Angels,-a very Paradise, where Love might encircle all things, and Hope consecrate the heart's sinless idolatries: to the other, the world is old and sombre, and faded, -the highway of endless Change, the great workshop of toiling millions, where the me chanism of busy art revolves and roars unceasingly, and man is ever driven and whirled along before the unresting force, the place of Mourning and a province of Death, where the pale moonlight shimmers on the tombstones, and sad, sweet voices seem to murmur in the winds, of future days and of holier spheres! Youth is sensitive: Its spirit lies open to the whole Universe, and from every living thing it derives impressions. It feels itself brother of Life, in all its grades and phases, and repeats its own existence in a thousand kindred forms, by means of its pure, unrestricted sympathies. It loves to linger on the Beautiful to hear tales of Fairy Land-to read the deeds of Heroes-to call up undefined visions, in day-dreams on sunny landscapes. The spirit of Youth is an embodied Poem; it is instinct with sensibility, intense, passionate, yet generous,-it reflects, in shadowy miniature, the grand forms of Nature which it has beheld,-it is full of the echoes of Music, it is addressed by voices of Spirits, -it resounds with processions of stirring Action,-it is conscious of wrongs and perils, of sorrows and agonies,-it swells with waves of feeling, and dilates with joy unspeakable. Age is reflective: It remembers much that it would gladly forget: much there is in the Past that it must sorrow over. Everything in the Past must it recall, for perpetual reviewing. Its sympathies are prone to revert to that which has been, or to mount to that which is to be, rather than to "act in the Living Present." Hence it broods over relics, memorial of departed days, or turns its dim eye to the lens of Faith,-beholding the starcrowned Witnesses of a Rest, secure and unbroken! There are errors which have marred its own peace, there are sins which have shaken, and calamities which have darkened, the Earth, in its time, there are revolutions, improvements, and enterprises, ever changing or modifying the order of human affairs,— there are long catalogues of events and experiences, numbered in the Archeology of Age, that exact hours and days of continuous meditation, and yield a mental repast of sweet and bitter thoughts. There are speculations in regard to the Future,-there are solemn questionings and solemn responses, which it is natural for Age to earnestly consider, since the measure of its earthly career is shrunken to a span, and Time is preparing to resign his subject to Eternity. Youth is restless and enterprising: It is jealous of tyranny-impatient under restrictions. It is vitalized by vague ambitions. It burns with insatiable curiosity. It is dazzled by the may-day promises of Hope. It is the subject-victim of Impulse. Intoxicated by the richness of its new sensations, it struggles to enlarge its borders-vainly wrestles with Titanic Mysteries-heedlessly thrusts itself upon Danger-becomes immersed, fathoms deep, in Reverie-is transfixed and inspired by Love-indites transcendent apostrophes to ideal graces-dreams of Fame, and fancies how its name will look in gold-letter-in a word, runs the circle of feverish action, allotted to every healthy and vigorous Individuality. The spirit of Youth is the spirit of Chivalry, it is valiant, unselfish, loyal to the |