O Life! how pleasant in thy morning. 
Young Fancy’s rays the hills adorning! 
Cold-pausing Caution’s lesson scorning,
We frisk away,
Like schoolboys at th’ expected warning,
To joy and play.
Epistle to James Smith.  B. BURNS.

Know when to speake; for many times it brings
Danger to give the best advice to kings.
Hesperides’ Caution in Councell. R. HEBRICK.

AGE.

I’m growing fonder of my staff;
I’m growing dimmer in the eyes;
I’m growing fainter in my laugh;
I’m growing deeper in my sighs;
I’m growing careless of my dress;
I’m growing frugal of my gold;
I’m growing wise; I’m growing,—­yes,—­
I’m growing old.
I’m Growing Old.  J.G.  SAXE.

                 And his big manly voice,
  Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
  And whistles in his sound.
As You Like It, Act ii.  Sc. 7.  SHAKESPEARE.

Time has laid his hand
Upon my heart, gently, not smiting it,
But as a harper lays his open palm
Upon his harp, to deaden its vibrations.
The Golden Legend, IV.  H.W.  LONGFELLOW.

                            Years steal
  Fire from the mind, as vigor from the limb;
  And life’s enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim.
Childe Harold, Canto III.  LORD BYRON.

For we are old, and on our quick’st decrees
The inaudible and noiseless foot of Time
Steals ere we can effect them.
All’s Well that Ends Well, Act v.  Sc. 3.  SHAKESPEARE.

Strange! that a harp of thousand strings
Should keep in tune so long.
Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Bk.  II.  DR. I. WATTS.

  Thus aged men, full loth and slow,
  The vanities of life forego,
  And count their youthful follies o’er,
  Till Memory lends her light no more.
Rokeby, Canto V.  SIR W. SCOTT.

  Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty;
  For in my youth I never did apply
  Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood;
  Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo
  The means of weakness and debility;
  Therefore my age is as a lusty winter,
  Frosty, but kindly.
As You Like, It.  Act ii. Sc. 3.  SHAKESPEARE.

  But grant, the virtues of a temp’rate prime
  Bless with an age exempt from scorn or crime;
  An age that melts with unperceived decay,
  And glides in modest innocence away.
Vanity of Human Wishes.  DR. S. JOHNSON.

  Who soweth good seed shall surely reap;
  The year grows rich as it groweth old,
  And life’s latest sands are its sands of gold!
To the “Bouquet Club." J.C.R.  DORR.

The spring, like youth, fresh blossoms doth produce,
But autumn makes them ripe and fit for use: 
So Age a mature mellowness doth set
On the green promises of youthful heat.
Cato Major, Pt.  IV.  SIR J. DENHAM.