ven as the Song says.
And that the example given may be the more memorable, AEacus says that
he was the father of Telamon and Peleus and of Phocus, from which
Telamon sprang Ajax and from Peleus Achilles.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Following the section which has been discussed, we have now to proceed
to the last, that is, to that which begins, "The fourth part of their
life Weds them again to God," by which the text intends to show what
the noble Soul does in the last age, that is, in Extreme Old Age, that
is, Senility. And it says that it does two things: the one, that it
returns to God as to that port or haven whence it departed when it
issued forth to enter into the sea of this life; the other is, that it
blesses the voyage which it has made, because it has been upright,
straight, and good, and without the bitterness of storm and tempest.

And here it is to be known that, even as Tullius says in that book On
Old Age, the natural death is, as it were, a port or haven to us after
our long voyage and a place of rest. And the Virtuous Man who dies
thus is like the good mariner; for, as he approaches the port or
haven, he strikes his sails, and gently, with feeble steering, enters
port. Even thus we ought to strike the sails of our worldly affairs,
and turn to God with all our heart and mind, so that one may come into
that haven with all sweetness and all peace.

And in this we have from our own proper nature great instruction in
gentleness, for in such a death as this there is no pain nor
bitterness, but even as a ripe apple easily and without violence
detaches itself from its branch, so our Soul without grief separates
itself from the body wherein it has dwelt.

Aristotle, in his book On Youth and Old Age, says that the death which
overtakes us in old age is without sadness. And as to him who comes
from a long journey, before he enters into the gate of his city, the
citizens thereof go forth to meet him, so do those citizens of the
Eternal Life go forth to meet the noble Soul; and they do thus because
of his good works and acts of contemplation, which were of old
rendered unto God and withdrawn from worldly affairs and thoughts.
Hear what Tullius says in the person of Cato the elder: "It seems to
me that already I see, and I uplift myself in the greatest desire to
see, your fathers, whom I loved, and not only those whom I knew
myself, but also those of whom I have heard spoken." In this age,
then, the noble Soul r