There is a certain even-handed justice in Time; and for what he takes away he gives us something in return. He robs us of elasticity of limb and spirit, and in its place he brings tranquility and repose—the mild autumnal weather of the soul.

Smith personifies Time as an impartial judge who both subtracts and compensates. The losses of aging—physical springiness and youthful ardor—are framed not simply as decline but as an exchange for inward gains: calm, steadiness, and a gentler emotional climate. The metaphor of “mild autumnal weather” suggests a season after summer’s intensity: less exuberant, but clearer, quieter, and more settled. The passage thus resists a purely tragic view of growing older, proposing that maturity can bring a compensatory wisdom and peace that youth, with its volatility and restlessness, rarely possesses.