Monday, July 21, 2008
Amusements of Old Age
Dugald Stewart, Biographical Memoirs, of Adam Smith, LL.D., of William Robertson, D.D., and of Thomas Reid, D.D. (Edinburgh: G. Ramsay and Co., 1811), p. 501:![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQZ2dDnI_RZYh6AMTIL-Pvg5ndHSclST-x2k-CLJPgg1-F_3VAUKPDl6mvqH7yGnI-vSELp5ZuRGv05fU1PrWOc50ClwPt3nJ62ZraUx0fDmJ0vxpbTv6SPwLcyjG-bxDFsToKmQ/s400/spitzweg-ein-besuch.jpg)
Carl Spitzweg, Ein Besuch
Newer› ‹Older
The revival, at this period, of Dr Reid's first scientific propensity, has often recalled to me a favourite remark of Mr Smith's, That of all the amusements of old age, the most grateful and soothing is a renewal of acquaintance with the favourite studies, and favourite authors, of our youth; a remark which, in his own case, seemed to be more particularly exemplified, while he was re-perusing, with the enthusiasm of a student, the tragic poets of ancient Greece. I heard him at least, repeat the observation more than once, while Sophocles or Euripides lay open on his table.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQZ2dDnI_RZYh6AMTIL-Pvg5ndHSclST-x2k-CLJPgg1-F_3VAUKPDl6mvqH7yGnI-vSELp5ZuRGv05fU1PrWOc50ClwPt3nJ62ZraUx0fDmJ0vxpbTv6SPwLcyjG-bxDFsToKmQ/s400/spitzweg-ein-besuch.jpg)