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:
Carl Spitzweg, Ein Besuch
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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.
