1.We ought not to think only upon the fact that our life each day i s waning away,what is left of it being ever less,but this also should be a subject for thought,that even if life be prolonged,yet is it unce rtain whether the mind will remain equally fitted in the future for the understanding of facts and for that contemplation which strains after th e knowledge of things divine and human.For if a man has entered upon hi s dotage,there will still be his the power of breathing,and digestion,and thought,and desire,and all such-like faculties;but the full use o f himself,the accurate appreciation of the items of duty,the nice disc rimination of what presents itself to the senses,and a clear judgment o n the question whether it is time for him to end his own life,and all s uch decisions,as above all require well-trained powers of reasoning-th ese are already flickering out in him.It needs,then,that we should pr ess onwards,not only because we come each moment nearer to death,but a lso because our insight into facts and our close touch of them is gradua lly ceasing even before we die.
2.Such things as this also we ought to note with care,that the acc essories too of natural operations have a charm and attractiveness of th eir own.For instance,when bread is in the baking,some of the parts sp lit open,and these very fissures,though in a sense thwarting the bread-maker's design,have an appropriateness of their own and in a peculiar way stimulate the desire for food.Again when figs are at their ripest,they gape open;and in olives that are ready to fall their very approach to over-ripeness gives a peculiar beauty to the fruit.And the full ears of corn bending downwards,and the lion's beetling brows,and the foam dripping from the jaws of the wild-boar,and many other things,though,if looked at apart from their setting,they are far from being comely,y et,as resultants from the operations of Nature,lend them an added char m and excite our admiration.