(b). Temperate habits will retain a good measure of strength till old age ([33], [34]); many instances of weakness in old age may be attributed to ill-health, which is common to all periods of life ([35]); proper care will greatly retard decay ... [33]-[38]
C. Refutation of the third charge, that old age takes away the capacity for enjoyment
(a). The pleasures in which youth finds its keenest enjoyment are in themselves bad, and old age is beneficent in freeing from their allurements ... [39]-[44]
(b). Old age has pleasures far more refined and satisfying than those of sense ... [45]-[64]
Such as, those of conversation and literature ([45]-[50]); especially those of agriculture ([51]-[61]); and lastly, the exercise of influence, which old age will always possess if a rightly spent youth has preceded ... ([62]-[64]).
(c). The special objection that old men's tempers spoil their enjoyments is met by the statement that this is the fault of character, not of age ... [65]
D. Refutation of the fourth charge, that old age is unhappy because it involves the anticipation of death.
(a). Since the right aim of life is to live not long but well, death ought not to be dreaded at any age ... [66]-[69]
(b). Old men, especially those of learning and culture, ought not to fear death ... [70]-[76]
Because, that which is according to nature is good, and it is natural for old men to die ([70]-[73]); the process of dying is brief and almost painless ([74]); even young men and those without learning often set the example of despising death ([75]); and old age, just as the other periods of life, has finally its season of ripeness and satiety ([76]).
(c). Death is probably the gateway to a happy immortality ... [77]-[85]
Tending towards proof of this are the arguments stated in Plato; viz. the rapidity of the mind's action, its powers of memory and invention, its self-activity, indivisible nature and pre-existence ([78]); also the arguments, attributed to Cyrus, based upon the soul's immateriality, the posthumous fame of great men and the likeness of death to sleep ([79]-[81]); the instinctive belief in immortality, so strong as even to form an incentive for action ([82]); and, finally, the speaker's own longing after immortality and hope of union with those whom he once knew and loved ([83]-[85]).