August 13

THE later years of life appear to me from a certain point of view to be the best. They are less disturbed by care and the world: we begin to understand that things never did really matter so much as we supposed, and we are able to see them more in the true proportion, instead of being overwhelmed by them. We are more resigned to the will of God, neither afraid to depart nor over-anxious to stay. There are some things which, perhaps, we can set right because we are no longer actors in them. We cannot see into another life, but we believe with an inextinguishable hope that there is something still reserved for us. We are able also to regard not in a temper of alarm the changes of opinion which we see going on around us, and which have been greater in our time than in any other, and to know that they are a part of natural growth or change which it would be childish to complain of.

From a Letter of BENJAMIN JOWETT

THE LAST IS BEST