Note 60 — XIII THE OLD AGE OF MARIE LECZINSKA

One should not be old except in Sparta, Say the ancient writings. Great God! how far I am out of the way, Who am so old in Paris. O Sparta! O Sparta! alas! what has become of you? You knew the full value of a hoary head. The more one muffled up in dog-days, The more the ear was deaf and dim the eye, The more nonsense one talked in his sad family, The more one criticised the veriest trifle, The more gout and similar titbits one possessed, The more teeth one had lost by their good will, The more one stooped over his heavy crutch, The more fit, in fact, one was to be buried, The more within its ramparts one was honored. O Sparta! O Sparta! alas! what has become of you? Yon knew the full value of a hoary head.