Middle age has its compensations. Youth is boundhand and foot with the shackles of public opinion.Middle age enjoys freedom.

　　I remember that when i left the school i said to myself: __1__

　　"Hence forward. I can get up when i like and go to bedwhen i

　　like." That of course was an exaggeration, and i soonfound that

　　whenever you have an aim you must sacrifice something of freedom to achieve

　　it. But by the time you have reached middle age you discovered how __2__

　　much freedom it was worth to sacrifice in order to achieve any aim that __3__

　　you have on view. When i was a boy i was tortured by shyness, __4__

　　and middle age has to a great extent brought me a relief of this. I __5__

　　have now no such feeling and i save myself much discomfort. I always

　　hated cold water, but for many years i bath in cold seas because __6__

　　i wanted to be like everybody. __7__

　　It was until quite late in life that i discovered how easy it was __8__

　　to say:"i don't know." i find with middle age no one expects me to

　　walk twenty-five miles, or to play a scratch game of golf, or to dive

　　from a height of thirty feet. This is all to the good and makes life

　　pleasant, but i should no longer care if they do. That is what makes __9__

　　youth unhappy, the vehement anxiety to be like other people, and

　　that is what makes middle age intolerable, the reconciliation with __10__

　　oneself.