In his poem Ode Intimations of Immortality, William Wordsworth states that as years pass, people forget where they come from, which according to him is the "celestial light," get swept into the pleasures handed to them, and loose their youth. With the line "The things which I have seen I now can see no more." William Wordsworth says that once you lose your youth, nothing will be the way it was before. He further explains this by saying that youth is the only passage way to the celestial light, and you can only remember the celestial life, when you are an infant.
When you think about children, you will find this to be quite true. Children are pure, naive, energetic and curious. For them, nothing is impossible, and they are full with optimism. Children are free, and they feel glorious. They can dream, live without a single worry, and be happy, but not forever, because they are forced to grow up. As people grow up, they explore the world, and actually understand the things going on around them, and nothing is as simple as it was before, when small toys and ice cream made them happy. As you grow up, you forget about your life in the celestial light. "Business, love, or strife" will take away all your attention, and you will learn to always ask for bigger and better things, to want the things you don't have, and life will never be pure again.
This can also be seen in Joseph Conrad's story, Youth. Marlow, a middle aged sailor looks back on his journey to the East on an old ship called Judea. Marlow describes the day he joined the ship, which had the motto "Do or Die," as one of the happiest days of his life. The ship goes through a series of unfortunate events, like getting hit by a steamer and the cargo spontaneously combusting, and the journey is delayed several times. However, none of this affects Marlow's spirit at all, since he his young, for him, everyday is a new adventure, and the world continues to amaze him. When Marlow looks back at his attitude, all that he can say his that he was so stupid, because he has grown up, life has changed him, and he is not young anymore, he is far away from the celestial light, and will never know heaven.
