Agedness

1641, John Milton, Of Reformation in England and the Causes that Hitherto Have Hindered It, Volume I, in Charles Symmons (ed.), The Prose Works of John Milton, London: J. Johnson (etc.), 1806, Volume I, pp. 21-22 (citing the 74th epistle of Cyprian), Neither ought custom to hinder that truth should not prevail; for custom without truth is but agedness of errour.

I cannot tell the half of the strange pleasures and thoughts that come about me at the sight of that old tower; for, in some sort, it is the epitome of all that makes the Continent of Europe interesting, as opposed to new countries; and, above all, it completely expresses that agedness in the midst of active life which binds the old and the new into harmony.

Keda's oldness was the work of fate, alchemy. An occult agedness. A transparent darkness. A broken and mysterious grove. A tragedy, a glory, a decay.