摘要：A.. half-century and more before the founding of this Association (I hope you will keep the period in mind), that irrepressible English clergyman Sydney Smith wrote: "It is a bore, I admit, to be past seventy, for you are left for execution and are daily expecting the death-warrant; but it is not anything very capital we quit. We are, at the close of life, only hurried away from stomachaches, pains in the joints, from sleepless nights and unamusing days, from weakness, ugliness, and nervous tremors; but we shall all meet again in another planet, cured of all our defects. Rogers will be less irritable, Macaulay more silent, Hallam will assent, Jeffrey will speak slower, Bolus will be just as he is, I shall be more respectful to the upper clergy."
