198. AGE, Yielding to.—
I am not the
champion called for by our present dangers.
“Non tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis,
tempus eget.” A waning body, a waning
mind, and waning memory, with habitual
ill health warn me to withdraw and relinquish
the arena to younger and abler athletes. I
am sensible myself, if others are not, that
this is my duty. If my distant friends know
it not, those around me can inform them that
they should not, in friendship, wish to call
me into conflicts, exposing only the decays
which nature has inscribed among her unalterable
laws, and injuring the common
cause by a senile and puny defence.—
To C. W. Glooch. Washington ed. vii, 430.
(M.
1826)
See Life.
