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Peace, he replied; most gladly have I escaped the thing of which

you speak; I feel as if I had escaped from a mad and furious

master. His words have often occurred to my mind since, and they

seem as good to me now as at the time when he uttered them. For

certainly old age has a great sense of calm and freedom; when the

passions relax their hold, then, as Sophocles says, we are freed

from the grasp not of one mad master only, but of many. The truth

is, Socrates, that these regrets, and also the complaints about

relations, are to be attributed to the same cause, which is not

old age, but men's characters and tempers; for he who is of a

calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but

to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are

equally a burden.