us a little reflect upon what he has lost by the number of Years:  The Passions which he had in Youth are not to be obeyed as they were then, but Reason is more powerful now without the Disturbance of them.  An old Gentleman t’other Day in Discourse with a Friend of his (reflecting upon some Adventures they had in Youth together) cry’d out, Oh Jack, those were happy Days!  That is true, reply’d his Friend, but methinks we go about our Business more quietly than we did then.  One would think it should be no small Satisfaction to have gone so far in our Journey that the Heat of the Day is over with us.  When Life itself is a Feaver, as it is in licentious Youth, the Pleasures of it are no other than the Dreams of a Man in that Distemper, and it is as absurd to wish the Return of that Season of Life, as for a Man in Health to be sorry for the Loss of gilded Palaces, fairy Walks, and flowery Pastures, with which he remembers he was entertained in the troubled Slumbers of a Fit of Sickness.

As to all the rational and worthy Pleasures of our Being, the Conscience of a good Fame, the Contemplation of another Life, the Respect and Commerce of honest Men, our Capacities for such Enjoyments are enlarged by Years.  While Health endures, the latter Part of Life, in the Eye of Reason, is certainly the more eligible.  The Memory of a well-spent Youth gives a peaceable, unmixed, and elegant Pleasure to the Mind; and to such who are so unfortunate as not to be able to look back on Youth with Satisfaction, they may give themselves no little Consolation that they are under no Temptation to repeat their Follies, and that they at present despise them.  It was prettily said,

  ‘He that would be long an old Man, must begin early to be one:’ 

It is too late to resign a thing after a Man is robbed of it; therefore it is necessary that before the Arrival of Age we bid adieu to the Pursuits of Youth, otherwise sensual Habits will live in our Imaginations when our Limbs cannot be subservient to them.  The poor Fellow who lost his Arm last Siege, will tell you, he feels the Fingers that were buried in Flanders ake every cold Morning at Chelsea.

The fond Humour of appearing in the gay and fashionable World, and being applauded for trivial Excellencies, is what makes Youth have Age in Contempt, and makes Age resign with so ill a Grace the Qualifications of Youth:  But this in both Sexes is inverting all things, and turning the natural Course of our Minds, which should build their Approbations and Dislikes upon what Nature and Reason dictate, into Chimera and Confusion.