Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1862-10-30
TIE PERIOD OF A MANS GREATEST
UTILITY.

DR.. John Brown declares that one man who
lives to be seventy and has ten children and
ive-and-twenty grandchildren, is of more
worth to the State than three men who die at
thirty and who, it is to he hoped, leave no chill
dren. \ mans physical working value is usu-
ally at its height from twenty to forty; as an
intellectual being from thirty to fifty, hut as Il
social and moral being, exering an influence in
society, guarding the minds Of children and
grand children, his utility is from forty TO
pnty. 1t is not until after thirty that he usually
begins TO have those reflections on life and So
cety which practically carry the wisdom of each
age beyond that of the preceding. He may
even young man have much information
that thousands have not, it he had been better
educated than they, but it is not until the
thuughlesS and the vicious begin to drop around
him from among the young men OF his own
age that his rehec ions on life and manners and
customs of men become such as to be really val
liable as a guide for Others beyond the wisdom
OF former generations. 1t is true that years do
not always bring wisdom but there is IA certain
maturity and Iipeuess of judgment and expert
ence which cannot come without them, a prac-
tical wisdom of the time and place, and pre-
caution system which make the counSes of the
aged tp the young an invaluable legacy. ANY
age governed too exclusively by Is Young men
will be radical, rash and prodisal of its rcsour-
cgs AID of life, while the days Of those who
honor the aged and experienced will be "long
in the land" and more truly progressive, be-
cause the progress will be without any retrugres-
sion.
Every man. who love, his children and his
country should therefore desire and aim tu pre-
ser"c his ygor until seventy, if he lives at all,
aud act on that sc le steadily. When it is
th u.;,b l;g,,
he shall be satisfied, it is because there is some
thing essentially satisfying in old age, and in
complete and dissaishing in life that falls
short OF it. The life of every one who lives to
be old may not be Il success but in one sense,
every life cut short by wasting, before old age,
must be considered n failure. 1t has not reach
ed the fullest possible utility Of that life to the
age of the world. The oil of life has been
burned too ferce!y and too freely for the high
est wisdom, since it is thoughts, ari,ing from
best preserved powers at the very end of then
course, which form the most valuable legacy tc
mankind which any parent can leave.
That system Of life, therefore, is most true
which produces the greatest number of well
developed and wise old men, capable of inlu
encing those coming after them by their coun
sells. All excesSes and extremes are opposed
to this, while the hardy habits which render
natural and easy all those many changes which
would be excessive and extreme to the unac
customed, should Of course be kept up in 1
community.
There is no doubt that country life is OF
the whole, more conducive to health than ont
exclusively in the city, but jud cious aterna-
ton is, perhaps, better than either. Regular
habits OF rising and Of rest, OF eating and o
exercise. are invaluable and early hours bette
than late ones. The alteration of mental will
physical exercises is of so great value that {
considerably larger proportion OF well preserved
old men is found in the ranks of college gradu
ates than those who have not received tha
source of education. Those who are moral am
regular in their religious habits have, upon tn
whole, a very much greater prospect OF a we
preserved life and constitution than any with
out such habits. 1t is thus and thus alone tha
We are fully able to appreciate the value to a
individual, to a family, to every nation, and I
each succeeding nge, Of those qualities and di,
positions or habits, which in their separate o
individual exercise, may seem OF but little i'm
portance. Nothing is, in fact more to be cor
sdered than the preservation of life, except th
preservation OF those principles of manlines
and of honor, of integrity and of virtue, upo
which the life and happiness and worth of n
! men, as individuals and as nations depend
This is why the old prophets so uniformly d
scribe the new and better state OF things as OF
in which "there shall be no more an old ma
, that hath not filled his days" that is a state
which no more untimely deaths of dilapdatt
constitution shall occur Philadelphia Ledge