The wise vieillard, or old man. Translated out of French into English by an obscure Englishman, a friend and fauourer of all wise old-men

CHAP. IIII. What old age is, and how many species and kindes of old age there be.

THE disloyaltie and fearefulnesse of Adam and Eue, was the violent downefall of themselues and their posteritie vnto death, and vnto all the forerunners of death, as con∣sumption, diseases, and wanne, and pale old age, which is the respecta∣cle, center, and sinke of all mans miseries. To speake properly, God onely is incorruptible, immortall, im∣mutable, alwayes the same, and whose yeares alter not. And although it be said that the soule of man is immor∣tall (as Saint Augustine affirmeth in his first booke, De Trinitate) yet the true immortality is a perfect immuta∣bility and vnchangeablenes which no creature hath. In God onely there is no variablenesse nor shadow of change, as saith Saint Iames, Chap. 1. 17. Verse. Con∣trariwise, our liues are variable and subiect to suddaine reuolutions, changes, and chances, and our faire outside and feature of body turnes to bee as a moth eaten gar∣ment: Our dayes (as the Patriarch Iacob said to the king of AEgypt) are few and euill or wearisome vpon earth. Galen knowing well that old age a naturall infirmity, which could not be auoyded, did iustly reproue a cer∣taine Philosopher who braggingly gaue it out, that hee had a receipt would preserue a man from growing old; Although, saith hee old age be naturall and ineuitable, and withall further addeth, that this Philosopher being growen to the age of fourescore yeares dyed of a hectique feauer. At that time when Saint Cyprian liued, the whole world was iudged to be very much weather∣beaten, to be growen old, and that all her former good

dayes were gone and past. Behold, what this couragi∣ous Martyr of Iesus Christ saith of the world in his tractate of death. If the old walles of your house should stand totteringly, if the battlement and roofe should shake, if the maine building should leane awry, and the rafters, postes, groundsells, and principall timbers should bee weake and rotten, all of them giuing you warning of the perill yee are in, if yee tarry in it, would yee stand to delay and pawse on the matter, and not get yee gone in all hast? The whole frame of the world doth totter and reele, and being old and neere her end, shee cryes out that shee stands vpon her last legges, and is quite downe, and you deferre to serue God, to seeke your owne safety and good, by preuenting those euils which with her crimes are ready to fall vpon you, and may bee escaped if you timely giue ouer the world.

Many learned Astronomers haue prooued by firme and sure demonstrations, that the celestiall Planets haue altered their course and motions, and that the Sun is come neerer to the earth, that by his warme neigh∣bour-hood (such is the speciall prouidence and will of God) the Elements, which are become weake in their influences might be the better relieued. Most certaine it is that the world is growen old, that Kingdomes, Common-weales, and Cities, haue their flourishing times, and times of decaie; kindreds also and whole families are rooted out, and not a man of them to bee seene aboue ground, and all the creatures which serue to our vse, and are subiect to vanitie, doe after their man∣ner groaningly desire and looke for an end, as the A∣postle saith, Rom. 8. 20.

But to returne to our Vieillard or old man, who is the subiect of this discourse, what other thing is old age then the road way to death? For seeing that death is a suffocating and quenching of the naturall heate of the body, old age makes way to him to enter and seize vp∣on the body the sooner. The older men are, the more

weake and feeble they are in euery thing they doe and take in hand, and this weakenesse of old age can in no sort be holpen and redressed, though wee striue to doe it, by keeping the heare from faintings and failings, and in continuall motion. For life and action end both at once; it being impossible that the liuing creature should die, so long as the heart receiues motion by the bodies action. Moreouer, old men, who are of a dry and cold constitution, are lesse fit to vndertake many actions, exploites, or imploiments. They are not quicke enough of apprehension, their senses fayling them by little and little, the synewes, lineaments, and all the members of their body doe shrinke, languish and de∣cay, their sight and hearing failes them, they are chap-fallen, and their teeth deny to champ and grinde the bread they must eat. And as God hath appointed eue∣ry mans race of life how long it shall be, and the stages hee must passe before he come to the end of it, whereof old age is the last stage of all; it is not euery mans de∣steny to goe so farre; some waxe old sooner then o∣thers, some beare their age very well, some looke old and are not: So that old age must not be iudged by the wrinkles in the fore-head, by the white haires, by the vnweldinesse or witherednesse of the body; there be∣ing on the contrary some very old, that haue a ruddy face and well coloured, a sleeked and smooth skin, and their haire of a cole-blacke or nutt-browne colour: But it is fit rather to referre our selues to the wordes of the Psalmist in the nineteenth Psalme, where mention is made of the yeares of mans life, and of those things which often happen therein, and of the many and ma∣nifold troubles and discommodities, wherewith old men are besieged and compassed about.

Moreouer, the Naturalists and Philosophers, haue vsed to diuide old age as it were into certaine spaces, paces, or progresses. The first pace and progresse, is from fifty to threescore yeares, at which age a man is

yet lusty, strong, and youthfull, especially those men who haue beene wise to liue abstinently and continent∣ly, flying gluttony, drunkennesse, whooredome, effemi∣nacies, excessiue paines taking, and labours more hurt∣full then necessary for the welfare and strength of the body, ouermuch carking and caring, and ouer violent passions of the minde, which ouerwhelme the soule, not suffering it to rest in quiet, or making it to goe gad∣ding and madding heere and there to and fro, as it happeneth to the licentious, ambitious, couetous, re∣uengefull, irefull, froward, fearefull, and such like per∣sons, who being tempested with disordered thoughts, and vnruly passions, are carried with the rage and fury of them, so farre out of the way of reason and besides themselues, that they can hardly hit the right way againe to the house and citie of God. And though that after fifty yeares the strength of nature doth wane, and by little and little doth abate and grow weake, yet wee see that men at that age and after, vntilll they bee threescore and fiue yeeres old and vpwardes, are fit persons to bee imployed in publike places of charge and command, as well for their counsell and wisedome to direct, as for their ability and valour to execute and performe, wherof we haue infinit examples in our owne Chronicles and moderne Histories. At threescore and fiue yeares, vn∣till fourescore, or much about that age old men may be fit to be counsellours of estate, and directours and go∣uernours of families. After this age vntill their dying day old men are fit for nothing but to sit in a chaire in their chamber, to haue their friends, seruants, and those of their house to visite them with reuerent and courte∣ous salutations, to haue their children and grand-chil∣dren leaping about them, making them pastime and sport, to be entertained with talke and discourse fitting to their weake capacities; And their part and duty is to returne them their blessing and well wishing, and to of∣fer vp daily prayers for them and all others, wherein

they must bee briefe and short, expecting and looking euery minute, when death will bee so kinde as to take them out of the world.

There is a kinde of old age ouerhastened, ouermuch worne and broken with sore labour, ouermuch paines taking, watchings and surfettings in times past. Those that by this meanes are become old, shall yet at times for the most part, haue perfect senses and vnderstanding, and shall haue their blood moderately hote, the luke∣warme heate whereof they shall know by skill and cun∣ning to cherish and maintaine: But yet their surfeited bodies shalbe tormented with sharpe diseases, and aches in their bones, which by fits at times, shall put them to such griping paines and panges in their body, that they shall be able no whit at all to helpe themselues, and their neighbours, for whose good and comfort they ought the more carefully to preserue, and the better to see to, and to order their life, that so they may in peace of conscience yeeld the better account to God. Briefly, our life may be compared to the light of a Lampe, which by little and little goes out, as the oyle that maintaines it doth waste and consume; or to the Moone, which as it oftentimes shines forth and shewes it selfe, so is it as often ecclipsed and vnder a cloud. But we commonly see the most part of men sweated to death with hote burning feauers: pestilences, famines, warres, common diseases, and diuers mischances sweepe them out of the world, before they come neere by many a dayes iour∣ney to the doore of old age. What man would desire to see the fortith part of his age, if when hee is come to be able to speake, and to bee of some capacity and vn∣derstanding, he should be shewed in a booke all the ac∣cidents and mischances, which from and after his in∣fancy is, or may happen vnto him, whereof (as Cicero re∣counteth in his second booke De diuinatione) Dicaear∣chus in times past wrote a large Volume; But I suppose hee had great leasure, and that all the world could not

containe all that might be imagined to fall out in some mens liues in fiftie yeares space. If a man fearing God will seriously examine, what things haue passed in his owne life, and make a Iournall or day booke of them, whereby hee may bee brought to repent him of his fol∣lies and faults, to amend his life, to lay hold on the be∣nefits of Iesus Christ, to renounce the world, and vn∣fainedly to meditate and thinke vpon a better life, hee shall doe a worthy worke; And I would gladly coun∣sell all wise old men to stay themselues vpon such medi∣tations, while some young foppish, and old doting per∣sons spend their time in ridiculous and shamefull sports and delights, or which doe by fowle crimes and mis∣deedes deadly wound their woefull consciences. It is recorded by Lactantius in his second booke of Christi∣an Institutions, that the old Poets did circle and inclose the life of man within three terminations or periodes, ouer which they appointed three fatall Ladies, Atropos, Lachesis, Clocho, the daughter of Iupiter and Themis, to spin at the thread of mans life; vnder which faigned names, was couertly vayled and shadowed diuers consi∣derations of our condition in this world, in the first, middle, and last age of our life, whereof we purpose not here to moralize or declare the meaning. Aristotle in his booke of the world maketh mention, that by these three daughters of Iupiter, the ancient people of those times would represent time past, time present, and to come; All things by them being tyed to a fatall neces∣sitie, which God hath decreed to bee; against which the oldest, strongest, and youngest cannot resist or gainsay.

The name of Senators is deriued from the Latine word senes, which signifies old men, who are so styled in honour of their experience, prudence, and wisedome, inseperable companions of such old men, who are ap∣pointed to haue the superintendency and gouernment ouer others. In the gouernment of all Churches, there is an Ecclesiasticall Senate, or conuocation of Elders,

who being assisted with the ministers of the word, haue their eyes still prying into the manners of men, to re∣forme and reclaime them from euill to good, and if they be good, to make them better. These old men aboue all others, ought to take heed that they doe not incurre the ancient reproach and scandall of, bis pueri senes, which is verified in those who are old in yeares, and in their manners and actions shew themselues children. But as it is a rare thing to see a yong man so well stayed, as an old, or to doe things so well and wisely as an anti∣enter body, so is it a lamentable thing to see old men to mocke & make moes one at an other, and to make a laughing stocke of those who are as old as themselues, or to doe the vttermost they can to disgrace them, onely to please and curry-fauour with young men: Common faults in these dayes, which the Ancient of dayes, will redresse when it pleaseth him. Let vs close vp this Section with a sentence of a Romane Stoicke, who sayth, That as he maketh not a long voyage, who is tossed to and fro at sea, with stormy and tempestuous windes, and doth not proceed; so ought we not to ac∣count that man to haue liued long, who hath not orde∣red his life to make a happy end.