brow unwrinkled with care; but there is a deeper charm in middle-life, when the faculties have all been matured and perfected—a difference as real and as appreciable as is seen between the ripe and golden fruit of autumn, and the silver blossom of the early spring. We may even pursue the simile further; for, as the tree has exhausted its internal force to bring forth its leaves, its blossom, and then mature the mellow fruit, and requires the hand of the gardener to prop up the bending branches that are ready to break with their own profusion—even so is it when the summer of life fades into the autumn; the vital stimulus which has hitherto sustained the frame gives indications of exhaustion, the fibres become relaxed, and the muscles flabby; the bones and the ligaments will, in the mean time, from the same cause, have become changed, and the whole body will need the sustaining care which intelligence, aided by art and science, can impart to it, propping up the weakened parts, and enabling them to maintain their normal position.
From what has been already said, the reader may perceive the wonderful influence which cultivation has upon the human body. Properly speaking, there is no difference in the organization of the
