197. AGE, Warned by.—[continued].
A decline of health at the
age of 76, was naturally to be expected, and
is a warning of an event which cannot be distant,
and whose approach I contemplate with
little concern; for indeed, in no circumstance
has nature been kinder to us, than in the
soft gradations by which she prepares us
to part willingly with what we are not destined
always to retain. First one faculty
is withdrawn and then another, sight, hearing,
memory, affection and friends, filched
one by one, till we are left among strangers,
the mere monuments of times, facts, and
specimens of antiquity for the observation of
the curious.—
To Mr. Spafford. Washington ed. vii, 118.
(M.
1819)
