Thou com’st to cheer my waning age, Sweet vision, waited for so long! Dove that would seek the poet’s cage Lured by the magic breath of song! She blushes! Ah, reluctant maid, Love’s _drapeau rouge_ the truth has told! O’er girlhood’s yielding barricade Floats the great Leveller’s crimson fold! Come to my arms!—love heeds not years No frost the bud of passion knows.— Ha! what is this my frenzy hears? A voice behind me uttered,—Rose! Sweet was her smile,—but not for me; Alas, when woman looks _too_ kind, Just turn your foolish head and see,— Some youth is walking close behind! As to _giving up_ because the almanac or the Family-Bible says that it is about time to do it, I have no intention of doing any such thing. I grant you that I burn less carbon than some years ago. I see people of my standing really good for nothing, decrepit, effete, _la lèvre inférieure déjà pendante_, with what little life they have left mainly concentrated in their epigastrium. But as the disease of old age is epidemic, endemic, and sporadic, and everybody that lives long enough is sure to catch it, I am going to say, for the encouragement of such as need it, how I treat the malady in my own case. First. As I feel, that, when I have anything to do, there is less time for it than when I was younger, I find that I give my attention more thoroughly, and use my time more economically than ever before; so that I can learn anything twice as easily as in my earlier days. I am not, therefore, afraid to attack a new study. I took up a difficult language a very few years ago with good success, and think of mathematics and metaphysics by-and-by. Secondly. I have opened my eyes to a good many neglected privileges and pleasures within my reach, and requiring only a little courage to enjoy them. You may well suppose it pleased me to find that old Cato was thinking of learning to play the fiddle, when I had deliberately taken it up in my old age, and satisfied myself that I could get much comfort, if not much music, out of it. Thirdly. I have found that some of those active exercises, which are commonly thought to belong to young folks only, may be enjoyed at a much later period.