Laudator Temporis Acti

Augustine, Sermons 391.2 (Patrologia Latina, vol. 39, col. 1707; tr. Edmund Hill):

But if not even the infancy of mortal humanity is free of temptations, because of this chain of corruption, what am I to say about the other stages of life? Or perhaps old age is the exception, is it, when in flesh already close to turning into a corpse the blood and instruments of unlawful lust have grown cold, and the material for temptation has dwindled away from a body that is tired out and as good as dead? On the contrary, however, such in bad old people is the whirlpool of greed, very often, and the insatiable maw of the belly and the palate, that however serene good old people may be in their wisdom, these others simply drown themselves in drunkenness. It's as though the only reason they grow gnarled and withered and sapless, is in order to be restored to their pristine vigor by being watered with a flood of intoxicants. What about avarice, which is the root of all evils (1 Tm 6:10)? Aren't frigid old people on fire with it, all the more fiercely set on acquiring things, the nearer they are to leaving behind what they are hoarding? A most extraordinary folly, undoubtedly. They are in a hurry, I mean, to burden themselves with more baggage than ever, now that they are already, as near as makes no difference, at journey's end.

Quod si nec infantia mortalis hominis propter corruptionis vinculum a tentationibus vacat, quid de ceteris aetatibus dicam? An forte senilis excepta est, et in carne iam vicina cadaveri sanguis ac membra illicitae concupiscentiae friguerunt, et a fesso ac prope mortuo iam corpore materies tentationis emarcuit? Immo vero tantus est in malis senibus plerumque gurges aviditatis et insatiabilis vorago ventris et gutturis, ut quanta boni senes prudentia serenantur, tanta isti vinolentia sepeliantur: quasi ad hoc in eis arida viscera et succo exhausta curventur, ut ad vigorem pristinum reparandum ebrietatis inundatione riganda sint. Quid avaritia, quae radix est omnium malorum, nonne in frigidis senibus tanto ad acquirendum ferventius inardescit, quanto citius relictura est quod acquirit? mirabili sane dementia. Gravioribus enim sumptibus se onerare festinat, cum iam pervenerit quo tendebat.