In general, only youth knows this predominance of the process of life over its substance; whereas in old age, when the process begins to slow up and coagulate, substance becomes crucial; it then proceeds or perseveres in a certain timeless manner, indifferent to the tempo and passion of its being experienced. The old person usually lives either in a wholly centralized fashion, peripheral interests having fallen off and being unconnected with his essential life and its inner necessity; or his center atrophies, and existence runs its course only in isolated petty details, accenting mere externals and accidentals. Neither case makes possible the relation between the outer fate and the inner springs of life in which the adventure consists

DEFINE: Explains adventure's essence as the connection between external fate and inner springs of life, which only youthful vitality can sustain.

XREF: Echoes Josiah Royce's concept of an 'individual to whom no one thing or all things, as mere objects, would be more than an occasion for some activity.' QUESTION: Is the loss of adventure in old age inevitable, or only when the center atrophies — and could a strong inner necessity preserve it?

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 484