...sincerity. Moreover he knew his uncle too well to attempt blandishment. "My Lord," the letter begins. ... "I wax now somewhat ancient; one and thirty years is a great deal of sand in the hour-glass. I ever bare in mind to serve her Majesty, not as a man born under Sol, that loveth honour, nor under...

...grand schemes of philosophical reform in mind. In 1592 he wrote his oft-quoted letter to Lord Burghley: "I wax now somewhat ancient; one and thirty years is a great deal of sand in the hour-glass" (VIII, 108). He expressed a youthful determination to serve the queen, not as a soldier, nor a statesman,...

...philosopher Francis Bacon, who lived at about the same time as Smith, said of himself in 1592, "I was now somewhat ancient: one and thirty years is a great deal of sand in the hour glass."6 If Smith felt the way Bacon did — "somewhat ancient" — he must have been anxious...

...and faithful devotion unto your service and your honourable correspondence0 unto me and my poor state can breed in a man, do I commend myself unto your Lordship. I wax0 now somewhat ancient; one and thirty years is a great deal of sand in the hour-glass. My health,...

...To my Lord Treasurer Burghley, (AD 1591.)— '* My lord, with as much confidence aa mine own honest and faithful devotion unto your service, and your honourable correspondence unto me and my poor esliu« cun breed in a man, do I commend myself unto your lord* hi p. I wax now somewhat ancient; one...