The Cirencester volunteers kept a record of their colds
through
PASSAGE III
Young men have strong passions, and tend to gratify
them indiscriminately. Of the bodily desires, it is the sexual by
which they are most swayed and in which they show absence of
self-control. They are changeable and fickle in their desires,
which are violent while they last, but quicklyover: their impulses
are keen but not deep-rooted, and are like sick people’s attacks
of hunger and thirst. They are hot-tempered and quick-tempered,
and apt to give way to their anger; bad temper often gets the
better of them, for owing to their love of honour they cannot
bear being slighted, and are indignant if they imagine themselves
unfairly treated. While they love honour, they love victory still
more, for youth is eager for superiority over others, and victory
is one form of this. They love both more than they love money,
which indeed they love very little, not having yet learnt what it
means to be without it. They look at the good side rather than
the bad, not having yet witnessed many instances of
wickedness. They trust others readily, because they have not
yet been cheated. They are sanguine; nature warms their blood
as though with excess of wine; and besides that, they have as
yet met with few disappointments. Their lives are mainly spent
not in memory but in expectation, for youth has a long future
before it and a short past behind it: on the first day of one’s life
one has nothing at all to remember, and can only look forward.
They are easily cheated owing to the sanguine disposition just
mentioned. Their hot tempers and hopeful dispositions make
them more courageous than older men are; the hot temper
prevents fear, and the hopeful disposition creates confidence;
we cannot feel fear so long as we are feeling angry, and any
expectation of good makes us confident.
The expression, ‘not in memory but in expectation’, as
used in the passage, implies
Stress your limit with past questions and answers