An old woman tells sleepy stories. Mont Cenis. Nursing 1821.

Mont Cenis. Nursing 1821.

INFANCY is ever the same in all countries, a mimickry of age. In childhood man is all memory; imagination begins when memory is sated; and judgment, when the latter is fading, and the first almost dead, such is life: when we could use our materials, they fail us; and when they abound, we want the instrument.

A child puts on the spectacles of age, but they are of no use: a young man affects the judgment of his elders, and finds himself wrong: an old woman, the vivacity of youth, and she tells sleepy stories.

Source: Sketches Illustrative of the Manners and Costumes of France, Switzerland and Italy. Illustrations by Richard Bridgens. Text by J.W. Polidori London. Baldwin, Cradock & Joy. 1821.

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