Christopher Morley

“ In the young, skepticism is mere biology and demiurge: in the mature it is intellectual. And as for matters of theology (in which you have betrayed much acute interest) , the study of divinity is usually placed at the wrong end of life. Surely no man should be allowed unanswerably to pulpiteer the Future Life until he is himself near enough to it to make it a reality to his spirit. But if parsons must be ordained in youth, then they should begin as Bishops, and work downward to the really vital office of curate. ”

“ Everyone doubtless considers himself to be wiser, riper, more tolerant, now, than he was one year, five years, ten years ago. And if we think that to be so of ourselves, why may we not credit it as a fact in others? When I meet and talk with some of the youngest and most scathing of the rising Intellectuals, I amuse myself by imagining them as they will be, say thirty years hence. ”

“ Those candid young foreheads a little corrugated; those jovial thunderbolts of opinion a little less detonative in effect; those busy superlatives grown a trifle grizzled with service. No—I have known so many older heads who really are wiser and wittier than ourselves that I cannot help concluding Time may be a tonic rather than a sedative. And so I sincerely elect to Stand Up for the Senior Generation. ”

“ It is a delicious picture of that heavenly earnestness of adolescence. The skepticism of sophomores is only an extroverted form of the same too easy credulity. No Young Revolutionist is dangerous: it is the Elderly Revolutionist who really makes things revolve. ”

“ What about these translations? they exclaimed. Where can one learn more about Chinese poetry? And they enclosed stamped addressed envelopes. Once more was testified the beautiful human faculty for taking seriously whatever appears in print. I went ahead, conscientiously, to satisfy the demand. In a little book (again I catch the publisher's eye) called Hide and Seek I included a large section of Chinese translations, with biographical notes upon the Oriental authors—done in such a vein that not even the gravest follower of the spurious Cavendish could mistake the intention. ”

“ In spite of his great age and his disillusion, he has moments that are truly boyish. We all like to say, of a man we admire greatly, that he "has the heart of a child." Certainly there is a naif appealing youthfulness in some of my Mandarin's simplicities. Occasionally, late in a winter afternoon, when I have been (after a whole day of random interruptions) trying to get a few hurried paragraphs written for the newspaper, I have quietly become aware of him standing by the window at my elbow. ”

“ Those who would try absurdly to persuade us that there is some deep-seated and inevitable hostility between the Young Men and their Elders can never stir up more than a sham battle while we see you pacing pensively between the opposing trenches. ”

“ And when I explained to him, patiently, that that particular newspaper was not published with any such intention, he said "Then why publish it at all?"
Some of my friends, to whom I have talked about this unsettling phantom, have complained that he is too elderly to be a really helpful companion; that his politics were formed under a Bad Old Dynasty; that he is too flippant and volatile to be congenial to Young Intellectuals in whom unorthodoxy has become severe, surly, and compulsory. But I am not one of those who believe that because a man is elderly he is necessarily shallow. ”

“ It is maddening to hear him contradict and ridicule the compromises and precious makeshifts which we build for self-respect. I tell him that he is an irresponsible doctrinaire: he has never had to earn a living, to carry on a daily job, or concern himself with anything but pure rationalism. ”

“ Which of course suggests the delicious problem as to how far a man may be insincere quite innocently and unconsciously. That indeed is too perilous to discuss. But truly I sometimes wonder if some of the embattled youths of the Younger Set, who so fiercely defy and reject the wiles of the Foundering Fathers, have ever really seen or known an Older Man? ”

“ But it must stand as your misfortune, since you who write so exquisitely and think with such delicate humorous honesty have shown yourself unwittingly as the ideal liaison officer between the generations. ”

“ Longfellow wrote an admirable potent little satire in his rhymed description of "What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist." For that is exactly what the hearts of healthy-minded young men do say, and should say. ”