AGE, OLD. The strong desire of a protracted life, and the marked respect with which aged per sons were treated among the Jews, are very often indicated in the Scriptures. The most striking in stance which Job can give of the respect in which he was once held, is that even old men stood up as he passed them in the streets (Job xxix. 8), the force of which is illustrated by the injunction in the law, Before the hoary head thou shalt stand up, and shalt reverence the aged ' (Lev. xix. 32). Similar injunctions are repeated in the Apocrypha, so as to shew the deportment expected from young men towards their seniors in company. Thus, in describing a feast, the author of Ecclesiasticus (xxxii. 3, 7) says, Speak thou that art the elder, for it becometh thee. Speak, young man, if there be need of thee, and yet scarcely, when thou art twice asked.' The attainment of old age is constantly promised or described as a blessing (Gen. xv. 15 ; Job v. 26), and communities are represented as highly favoured in which old people abound (Is. lxv. 20 ; Zech. viii. 4), while premature death is denounced as the greatest of calamities to individuals, and to the families to which they belong (I Sam. ii. 32) ; the aged are constantly supposed to excel in under standing and judgment (Job xii. 20; xv. IO ; xxxii. 9 ; I Kings xii. 6, 8), and the mercilessness of the Chaldeans is expressed by their having no com passion' upon the old man, or him who stooped fur age' (2 Chron. xxxvi. 17).
The strong desire to attain old age 'was neces sarily in some degree connected with or resembled the respect paid to aged persons ; for people would scarcely desire to be old, were the aged neglected or regarded with mere sufferance.
Michaelis, carrying out a hint of Montesquieu, fancies that veneration for old age is peculiarly suitable to a democracy,' and, consequently, to the republican circumstances of the Israelites.' Ile adds, In a monarchy or aristocracy, it is birth and office alone which give rank. The more pure a democracy is, the more are all on an equal footing ; and those invested with authority are obliged to bear that equality in mind. Here great actions confer respect and honour ; and the right discharge of official duties, or the arrival of old age, are the only sources of rank. For how else can rank be established among those who have no official situa tion, and are by birth perfectly equal' (Ares. Recht., art. cxl.) This is ingenious, and partly true. It would perhaps be wholly so, if, instead of connect ing it with republican circumstances,' the respect for age were rather regarded in connection with a certain state of society, short of high civilization, in which the sources of distinction, from whatever causes, are so limited, that room is left for the natural condition of age itself to be made a source of distinction. Of all marks of respect that to age
is most willingly paid ; because every one who does homage to age, may himself eventually become an object of such homage. We almost invariably ob serve that where civilization advances, and where, in consequence, the claims to respect are multiplied, the respect for old age in itself diminishes ; and, like other conditions, it is estimated by the positive qualities which it exhibits. In the East, at pre sent, this respect is manifested under every form of government. In the United States the aged are certainly not treated with more consideration than under the monarchical and aristocratical govern ments of Europe. Professor C. Stowe (in Am. Bib. Repos.), who had unusual means of com parison, says they are there treated with less; and this seems to prove satisfactorily, that it is rather the condition of civilization than the condition of government, which produces the greater or less respect for age.
Attention to age was very general in ancient times; and is still observed in all such conditions of society as these through which the Israelites passed. Among the Egyptians, the young men rose before the aged, and always yielded to them the first place (Herod. ii. 80). The youth of Sparta did the same, and were silent—or, as the Hebrews would say, laid their hand upon their mouth—whenever their elders spoke. At Athens, and in other Greek states, old men were treated with corresponding respect. In China deference for the aged, and the honours and distinctions awarded to them, form a capital point in the government (Mem sur les Chinois, vol. i, p. 45o) ; and among the Moslems of Western Asia, whose usages offer so many analogies to those of the Hebrews, the same regard for seniority is strongly shewn. Among the Arabs, it is very seldom that a youth can be permitted to eat with men (Lane. Arabian Nights, c. xi. note 26). With the Turks, age, even between brothers, is the object of marked deference (Urquhart, Spirit of the East, ii. 471).
In all such instances, which might he accumu lated without number, we see the respect for age providentially implanted the most strongly in those states of social existence in which some such senti ment is necessary to secure for men of decayed physical powers, that safety and exemption from neglect, which are ensured to them in higher con ditions of civilization by the general rather than the particular and exemptive operation of law and softened manners.