The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [67]
14. We ought to be very grateful to old age for depriving us of an inclination for that which it is harmful to do.
15. For excessive indulgences hinder thought, are a foe to reason, and blind the eyes of the mind.
16. Although old age has to abstain from extravagant banquets, it is still capable of enjoying modest festivities.
17. It was a good idea of our ancestors to view the presence of guests at a dinner table as a community of enjoyment, which they called ‘convivial’, meaning ‘living together’.
18. And there are many pleasures besides the pleasures of the feast and the inn. We have already spoken of study;
19. Think also of the countryside, and the garden; and remember the story of Lysander’s visit to Cyrus, the great Persian king:
20. When Lysander took Cyrus gifts from his allies, the king treated him with courteous familiarity and kindness, and among other things took him to see a carefully planted park near his palace.
21. Lysander expressed admiration of the trees and their arrangement, the careful cultivation of the soil free from weeds,
22. The sweet odours of the flowers planted there; and he asked who had planned and planted this garden.
23. ‘It was I,’ said Cyrus, ‘many of the trees were placed in the earth by my own hands.’
24. Then Lysander, looking at the king’s purple robe, the brilliance of his person, and his adornment in the Persian fashion with gold and many jewels, said:
25. ‘People are quite right, Cyrus, to call you happy, since the advantages of high fortune have been joined to an excellence like yours.’
Chapter 21
1. The foregoing applies to an old age that has been well established on foundations laid by youth. It is a wretched old age that has to defend itself by speech.
2. Neither white hairs nor wrinkles can at once claim influence in themselves: it is the honourable conduct of earlier days that is rewarded by possessing influence at the last.
3. They say that Sparta was the most dignified home for old age; for nowhere was more respect paid to years, nowhere was old age held in higher honour.
4. Indeed, the story is told of how, when a man of advanced years came into the theatre at Athens, no place was given him anywhere in that large assembly by his own countrymen;
5. But when he came near the Spartans, who as ambassadors had a fixed place assigned to them, they rose as one man out of respect for him, and gave the veteran a seat.
6. When they were greeted with rounds of applause from the whole audience, one of them remarked: ‘The Athenians know what is right, but will not do it.’
7. But, it will be said, old men are fretful, fidgety, ill-tempered and disagreeable. But these are faults of character, not of the time of life.
8. And, after all, fretfulness and the other faults I mentioned admit of some excuse – not, indeed, a complete one, but one that may possibly pass:
9. For with some justification the elderly think themselves neglected, looked down upon, mocked.
10. Besides, with bodily weakness every rub is a source of pain. Yet all these faults are softened both by good character and good education.
11. There remains the fourth reason, which more than anything else appears to torment some older people,
12. And to make the approach of age seem disagreeable to those who are younger: namely, the increasing nearness of death.
13. But what a poor dotard must he be who has not learnt in the course of so long a life that death is not a thing to be feared?
14. Death is no different from being unborn. It is sleep without dreams, it is rest, the final escape from all ills and passions.
15. It is immunity from wrong, from calumny, error and spite. Who would not welcome this, who can think clearly and without fear?
16. And in any case death is common to every time of life, and in many cases has a nearer approach to infancy and to youth, with its accidents and its own diseases.
17. What sort of charge against old age is the nearness