CHAPTER XV.

OF THE MANNERS OF OLD MEN.

The manners of _old_ men are in a manner the contraries of those of _youth_. They determine nothing. They do everything less vehemently than is fit. They never say, they know; but to everything they say, perhaps and peradventure; which comes to pass from that, having lived long, they have often mistaken and been deceived. They are peevish, because they interpret everything to the worst. And suspicious through incredulity, and incredulous by reason of their experience. They love and hate, as if they meant to continue in neither. Are of poor spirits, as having been humbled by the chances of life. And covetous, as knowing how easy it is to lose, and how hard to get. And timorous, as having been cooled by years. And greedy of life; for good things seem greater by the want of them. And lovers of themselves, out of pusillanimity. And seek profit more than honour, because they love themselves; and profit is among the goods that are not simply good, but good for one’s self. And without bashfulness, because they despise seeming. And hope little; knowing by experience that many times good counsel has been followed with ill event; and because also they be timorous. And live by memory rather than hope; for memory is of the time past, whereof old men have good store. And are full of talk, because they delight in their memory. And vehement in their anger, but not stout enough to execute it. They have weak or no desires, and thence seem temperate. They are slaves to gain. And live more by reason than custom; because reason leads to profit, as custom to that which is honourable. And do injury to endamage, and not in contumely. And are merciful by compassion, or imagination of the same evils in themselves; which is a kind of infirmity, and not humanity, as in _young men_, proceeding from a good opinion of those that suffer evil. And full of complaint, as thinking themselves not far from evil because of their infirmity.

Seeing then every man loves such men and their discourses which are most agreeable to their own manners; it is not hard to collect, how the orator and his oration may be made acceptable to the hearer, whether _young_ or _old_.

==========