Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1874-10-10
The Advent of Old Age.

There is 4 certain period in life when the
human body, as well Us mind, reaches its
maximum point Of development, and from
that point to the grave is the season of de-
cay. This idea is far more forcibly eX
pressed by Shakespeare, who makes jacques,
in ''As You Like 1t, say
"And so from hour to hour We ripe and
ripe,
And then from hour to hour we rot and
rot.
And thereby hangs tale"
At what age are we to look for this
change? The Psamist says the days of
men are three score years and ten, and some
of our readers, perhaps, will remember
pretty little poem of Willis, written on his
thirty fifth birthday, beginning, I'm half
way home; :" but poets are not very reliable
authority in matters Of science. \ diStin.
guishcd phySioogist writing upon the sub
ject says: Il propose the follow ing natural
duratioRs for the whole life Of man. The
first ten years Of life are infancy. the second,
ten boyhood, the third ten first youth, the
fourth ten second youth, from forty to forty
FIVE first manhood from forty five to seventy
second manhood and tIis period of man.
hood is the age of strength, the manly per-
iod Of human life. From seventy to eighty
five first old age, from eighty-iive to one
hundred second old age
These deductions are made from careful
study Of the question. with all the aids de-
nyable from thorough knowledge of the
sciences Of anatomy and physiology. 1t is
not claimed but what these divisions will
vary in different indi, idualS. and overlap
each other in the same one but that they
are as correct as such u general truth can
be stated we verify believe. These limits
are not so arbitrary as they seem at FIRST
sight. At ten Years Of are the second tooth
ing is completed and infancy ought to end;
at twenty the bones no longer increase in,
the body ceases to increase in size. and
youth ends, and so on. After forty what
ever increase there may be Of the body is in
fat: and. instead of increasing its strength
and activity, this latter growth wcakcns the
body and rctar,lS its motions. When the
growth ceases absolutely the body rests,
rallies, and becomes invigorntcd. This per-
iod Of internal inv ;goration is the period Of
the first manhood, and lasts fifteen years,
when the period of old are begins and this
period begins when we have no longer any
reserve Of strength to draw upon, and when
the natural strength is barely sufficient for
the daily work, and when anything unusual
fatigucS, and extraordinary Efforts impair
the general health. When this condition
Of things arrives, old age has fairly begun,
and this period is at seventy years of agc.
Buffon, the distinguished naturalist. says,
'tliat the man who does not die by accident
or disease, lives to ninety or one hundred
years That he is eminent authority no
one will dispute. 1t is very true, however,
that comparatively few men live to he nine
Is OF Il hundred Years old, but that affords
no argument against the truth Of our pro-
position. Most men die of di+ca ~c-ouly
a very few Of Old age The death record of
any place will show, however, quite Il re-
spectacle number of people who live to be
eighty and one hundred years old.
| hear people sigh for the days of their
chidhood, and grow inpatient. All poets
have uttered their rhymic wall over middle
age, and sung their sweetest strains over the
dimpled days of babyhood What they say
on this subject may be very good poetry, but
it is wretched religion. If an unconscious
ness Of the grand struggle of life, which is
one Of the peculiariiies Of childhood, is hap
pineSs, then Darwin's theory, taken literal
ly, is evidently the one to be accepted. lie
tells us of the descent of the race from ami
mails, and we are quite right in making the
perfect unconsciousncss of the animal the
perfection of happiness, while next in order
will come the blurred consciousness of the
child, and lastly the perfect consci BUSINESS
Of the man, which is the equivalent of mis-
cry and wretchcdneSs. Childhood is ccr-
tainy well enough to begin with, but l
think we would be sorry to end with it.
There is Il place in every human heart for
China dolls and japanese tops, but there is
also place for mental culture, for struggle,
for hard work, and for a reasonable faith.
Babyhood is beautiful, but manhood is he
roic and divine.