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‘Old men also (as well as young, c. 12. 15) are inclined to compassion, but not for the same reason as the young; in the one it is from humanity, in the other from weakness; for all calamities that happen to others seem to be near at hand, impending over, themselves (near at hand to themselves to suffer, ὥστε αὐτοὺς παθεῖν αὐτά), and this is what was said (ἦν, viz. c. 8 § 1) to incline men to pity. And hence it is that they are querulous (difficilis, querulus, Hor. A. P. 173) and not given to pleasantry nor fond of mirth; for a querulous disposition (habit of complaining, bemoaning oneself) is opposite to love of mirth’.
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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