Now just as we judge of the value of a glass by its ability to
bring things as they are within the range of our vision, so, says
Browning, old age is much better than youth. In age our old eyes
become achromatic. The rosy illusions of youth vanish, thank God for
it! The colors which we imagined belonged to the object were in
reality in our imperfect eyes--as we grow older these pretty colors
disappear and we see what? We see life itself. Life is a greater and
grander thing than any fool's illusion about it. The world of nature
and man is infinitely more interesting and wonderful as it is than
in any mistaken view of it. Therefore old age is better than youth.
PROLOGUE
1889
The Poet's age is sad: for why?
In youth, the natural world could show
No common object but his eye
At once involved with alien glow--
His own soul's iris-bow.
"And now a flower is just a flower:
Man, bird, beast are but beast, bird, man--
Simply themselves, uncinct by dower
Of dyes which, when life's day began,
Round each in glory ran.
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