But to me, Socrates, these complainers seem to blame that which is not really in fault.

For if old age were the cause, I too being old, and every other old man, would have felt as they do.
But this is not my own experience, nor that of others whom I have known.

How well I remember the aged poet Sophocles, when in answer to the question, How does love suit with age, Sophocles,--are you still the man you were?
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.