Who not content that former worth stand fast Looks forward persevering to the last, From well to better daily self-surpassed. Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth Forever and to noble deeds give birth Or he must fail, to sleep without his fame And leave a dead, unprofitable name-- Finds comfort in himself and in his cause And while the mortal mist is gathering, draws His breath of confidence in heaven’s applause. This is the Happy Warrior, this is he That every man in arms should wish to be * * * * * A being breathing thoughtful breath A traveler between life and death, The reason firm, the temperate will, Endurance, forethought, strength, and skill. There is a vast difference between old age as commonly seen and as it should be. The average type of humanity is undergoing a change. Civilization means city-fication and this involves a state of mind very different from that of the rustic. Worry has become the disease of the age as it was not formerly when man’s vegetative nature was stronger. It is a _maladie des beaux esprits_. We are no longer content to eat, sleep, and sit in the sun. The old always and greatly need grandchildren and it was never so hard to provide occupation for them, for their temptation now is to become self-centered, which is perhaps most common in women. It takes a different form in men superannuated by some automatic rule. Pitiful is the state of those who withdraw from occupations that have required and developed great mental activity. The young, on the other hand, are less tolerant than formerly of the foibles and frailties of age. We live at such a high speed that it seems slow, if not stupid, and lack of sympathy adds to its burdens. The very idea of the family is declining and there is little left of the old sentiment for the patriarch, so that “the faster we move, the wider must become the gap between the young and those who, like the aged, have ceased to move.” Indeed, old age “is probably less tolerated and less tolerable to-day than ever in the past,” for the old were never so out of it. It might be expected, as death draws near, that religious anxieties would increase, but the contrary is true. Youth was never so unable to apply the principle _Tout comprendre c’est tout pardonner_ or to make allowances. So it is the young who worry most about religious matters. “Absence of occupation is not rest. The mind that’s vacant is a mind distrest.”