' After
mentioning the works he had undertaken on behalf of the republic for
draining the marshes, and the projects which he had constantly
advocated for preserving the lagoons, he thus concludes:
'These are the true recreations of an old age which God has permitted
to be healthy, and which is free from those mental and bodily
sufferings to which so many young people and so many sickly older
people succumb. And if it be allowable to add the little to the great,
to add jest to earnest, it may be mentioned as a result of my moderate
life, that in my eightythird year I have written a most amusing comedy,
full of blameless wit. Such works are generally the business of youth,
as tragedy is the business of old age. If it is reckoned to the credit
of the famous Greek that he wrote a tragedy in his seventythird year,
must I not, with my ten years more, be more cheerful and healthy than
he ever was? And that no consolation may be wanting in the overflowing
cup of my old age, I see before my eyes a sort of bodily immortality in
the persons of my descendants. When I come home I see before me, not
one or two, but eleven grandchildren, between the ages of two and
eighteen, all from the same father and mother, all healthy, and, so far
as can already be judged, all gifted with the talent and disposition
for learning and a good life.
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