OLD AGE.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 30, 19 February 1937, Page 4

OLD AGE.

u It is when we have time to survey the years that are past. that we can look with keen, critioal eyes at the part we played througkout them," writes Sir Herbert Barker in tbe Daily Herald (London) . "There can be no harsher court than the tribunal of self-judgment when it sits in age upon the errors and omissions of the years. In a way, each of us gets the old age he deserves. And when I write that I am not thinking of material rewards, but pf those consolations that no man can steai from another. For just as the bee gathers honey against winter, so we, too, fill the storehouse of onr futures with the trash or treasure of our choice. For when the heat of the day is passed and evening is come, we shall draw upon whatever we have garnered through the years. " Then to whoever has sfcored his heart and brain with sweet and noble things, with eharities and daily kindnesses, and whoever has drunk deep of the beauty of the world, will know a deep content and fulfilment. But what of those who have nothing but a memory of a market-place ? They will be empty in the evening of their day. For in. old age, beyond the minimum of needs, there is but. one want. The old desire to be loved. To be old and nnwantad — and whq has not seen this tragedy? — is not always a sad commentary upon the young and vigorous. For, as one poefc. says, 'Human love needs human mcriting.' We are loyed as we d^perve to be lored^'