Precept and Practice – DECEMBER 10 – Youth and Age
You know well enough what I mean by youth and age; something in the soul, which has no more to do with the colour of the hair than the vein of gold in a rock has to do with the grass a thousand feet above it.
(Oliver Wendell Holmes – The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table)
It is a noble thing when a man grows old retaining something of youthful freshness and fervour. It is a fine thing to ripen without shrivelling, to reach the calmness of age, yet keep the warm heart and ready sympathy of youth,
(A. K. H. Boyd)
O! Friends whose hearts still keep their prime,
Whose bright example warms and cheers;
Ye teach us how to smile at Time,
And set to music all his years!
(J. G. Whittier)
oooOOOooo
From the Introduction to Precept and Practice
The kindly welcome given to my other little books, ‘Being and Doing’ and ‘Character and Conduct,’ must be my excuse for adding another collection of extracts to the number now in circulation.
The quotations are gathered from the books of many earnest thinkers, and deal with Life in all its length and breadth, with ourselves, our characters, our plain unvarnished faults and weaknesses, our often untoward circumstances, and with all that drags us down;- with our purposes, our religion, our love and friendships, and with all that uplifts us;- with our relation to others, our influence and responsibilities, and finally with those stages of our journey which bring us to the Road’s Last Turn and to the Silent Land.
CONSTANCE M. WHISHAW
Suffolk Vicar 