And how very brisk life has become now! With each succeeding year there is more and more interest in it, more and more relish to it! I wish I could live forever, I wish I could act all the time!" The old man smacked his lips, rubbed his hands, and his small eyes gleamed greedily.
"But you are a thin-blooded lot! Ere you have grown up you are already overgrown and withered.

You live like an old radish.

And the fact that life is growing fairer and fairer is incomprehensible to you.

I have lived sixty-seven years on this earth, and though I am now standing close to my grave I can see that in former years, when I was young, there were fewer flowers on earth, and the flowers were not quite as beautiful as they are now.

Everything is growing more beautiful! What buildings we have now! What different trade implements.