ness in their years, which fadeth betimes. These are, first, such as have brittle wits, the edge whereof is soon turned; such as was Hermogenes[1] the rhetorician, whose books are exceeding subtle; who afterwards waxed stupid. A second sort is of those that have some natural dispositions which have better grace in youth than in age; such as is a fluent and luxuriant speech; which becomes youth well, but not age: so Tully saith of Hortensius,[2] Idem manebat, neque idem decebat.[3] The third is of such as take too high a strain at the first, and are magnanimous more than tract[4] of years can uphold. As was Scipio Africanus,[5] of whom Livy[6] saith in effect, Ultima primis cedebant.[7]
- ↑ Hermogenes, of Tarsus, in Cilicia, lived in the second half of the second century, A.D. He was a noted Greek rhetorician, and is said to have lost his memory at the age of twenty-five.
- ↑ Quintus Hortensius, 114–50 B.C., an eminent Roman orator and contemporary of Cicero, who said of him: "Sed quum iam honores et ilia senior auctoritas gravius quiddam requireret, remanebat idem nec decebat idem." Marcus Tullius Cicero. Brutus. Caput 95.
- ↑ He remained the same, but the same was no longer becoming. Vivacity which increases with age is little short of folly. La vivacité qui augmente en vieillissant ne va pas loin de la folie. Maximes et Réflexions Morales du duc de La Rochefoucauld. 416.
- ↑ Tract. Course.
"My fancies all be fledde:
And tract of time begins to weave,
Gray heares upon my hedde."Tottel's Miscellany. The aged lover renounceth love. Thomas Lord Vaux. This is the ballad from which Shakspere took the gravedigger's song in Hamlet. v. 1.
- ↑ Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major, 234–183 (?) B.C., a great Roman general, who defeated the Carthaginians under Hannibal in the battle of Zama, 202 B.C.
- ↑ Titus Livius, 59 B.C. to 17 A.D., a great Roman historian. He wrote a history of Rome, from the founding of the city to tho death of the Roman general Nero Claudius Drusus, brother of Tiberius, 9 B.C. The work consisted of 142 books, of which 35 are extant, 1–10, and 21–45.
- ↑ The last fell short of the first. Bacon's three Latin words condense fourteen of Livy's. "Vir memorabilis, bellicis tamen quam pacis artibus memorabilior, prima pars vitae quam postrema fuit."
