the years increase, it always becomes easier to say, Dare to be
wise--_sapere aude_. And after sixty, the inclination to be alone
grows into a kind of real, natural instinct; for at that age
everything combines in favor of it. The strongest impulse--the love of
woman's society--has little or no effect; it is the sexless condition
of old age which lays the foundation of a certain self-sufficiency,
and that gradually absorbs all desire for others' company. A thousand
illusions and follies are overcome; the active years of life are
in most cases gone; a man has no more expectations or plans or
intentions. The generation to which he belonged has passed away, and a
new race has sprung up which looks upon him as essentially outside its
sphere of activity. And then the years pass more quickly as we become
older, and we want to devote our remaining time to the intellectual
rather than to the practical side of life. For, provided that the mind
retains its faculties, the amount of knowledge and experience we have
acquired, together with the facility we have gained in the use of our
powers, makes it then more than ever easy and interesting to us to
pursue the study of any subject. A thousand things become clear which
were formerly enveloped in obscurity, and results are obtained which
give a feeling of difficulties overcome. From long experience of men,
we cease to expect much from them; we find that, on the whole, people
do not gain by a nearer acquaintance; and that--apart from a few rare
and fortunate exceptions--we have come across none but defective
specimens of human nature which it is advisable to leave in peace.
We are no more subject to the ordinary illusions of life; and as, in
individual instances, we soon see what a man is made of, we seldom
feel any inclination to come into closer relations with him. Finally,
isolation--our own society--has become a habit, as it were a second
nature to us, more especially if we have been on friendly terms with
it from our youth up. The love of solitude which was formerly indulged