OF YOUTH AND AGE.                     231
 

XLIL

OF YOUTH AND AGE.

A MAN that is young in years may be old in hours,
if he have lost no time. But that happeneth rarely.
Generally, youth is like the first cogitations, not so
wise as the second. For there is a youth in thoughts
as well as in ages. And yet the invention of young
men is more lively than that of old ; and imagina¬
tions stream into their minds better, and, as it were,
more divinely. Natures that have much heat, and
great and violent desires and perturbations, are not
ripe for action till they have passed the meridian of
their years; as it was with Julius Caesar and
Septlmius Severus ; of the latter of whom it is
said : Jiruentutem egit erroribus, imo furoribus,
plenam. And yet he was the ablest emperor almost
of all the list. But reposed natures may do well in
youth. As it is seen in Augustus Csesar, Cosmos
Duke of Florence, Gaston de Foix, and others. On
the  other  side, heat and  vivacity in age is an ex-