Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-12-23
THE DREAD OF OLD AGE.
The Disease Called SeniIity Much Rarel
Than it Used to Be.

INC disease called SentlttY Much Rarer
Than it Used to Be.
There is nothing to surprise us in the
interest displayed all over the world
often in such kindly and graceful fashion
says the London Spectator, in the hun
dredth anniversary of Sir Moses Monte
flores birthday. Apart from the dignity
Of the great Hebrews personal Character.
which, though in different way, resem-
bles the dignity of Lord Shaftesbury,s.
and from the fact that he has illustrated
cosmopolitan clan very sensitive to
such illustrations, all mankind are at
tracted by any instance of extreme old
age reached without loss of faculties. of
visible happiness, or of consideration,
We all of us, or at least all of us who are
slipping past 80, secretly dread old ace.
and regard with aversion its usual. ar
traditionally usual, conditions; and the
sight Of man about whose years there
can be no question who has passed by
thirty years the average limit of human
life, and by ten years an extreme limit.
and yet talks well, hears fairly well, sees
perfectly well, and could walk like an
other but for weakness, is pleasantly re-
assuring. If the man Of a century can be
like Sir Moses, the man of 30 may be only
a little indOlent, the man OF so hale and
hearty, and the man of 20 retain 'Ethe full
est VlgOr of his faculties"-a phrase SO
habitually used and in so conventional
sense that Suffolk laborer was once
heard to tell his clergyman: "Thank We,
sir, Pm well enow, but my faculties is
failing, specially my feet" That is one
secret, we are convinced, of the decided
popularity of very old statesmen, and
especially old statesmen of great Vigor. a
sense among the middle-aged that if they
whos are SO visible can be so strong and
active and full OF brIlliancy, old age can
not be so dreadful after all. An appre-
hension is removed or lessened, and a
very keen one. Some of the dread no
doubt is traditional, founded upon bovish
recOllectiOns, and even upon books, Shak-
speare in particular having expressed. in
lines which have stuck in the national
memory, an unusually strong sense of
the infirmities of age. His celebrated
lines were probably accurate at the time,
Tor they are accurate now when applied
to certain classes of the very poor, but
they no longer describe the majority OF
the aged Well-to-dO. Whatever the cause.
whether improved sanitary appliances, or
greater temperance, or, as we should our
selves believe, an increase in the habit
OF persistently using the mind and can
sistently taking interest in events, it is
certain that the disease called senility ia
NAAAOAo SAAS AOAAg hNSn dlCl budu II
used to be. The old lose their hearing
and their activity, and part of the keen
ness of their sight, and are supposed to
be grown duller alike to pleasure and to
pain; but they much schooner become
totally blind, or fatuous, or unable to con-
troll their features, or incapable of guild
ing themselves about. Men of 81 or 50,
who, in the early part of the century,
would nave fallen into second childhood,
then a disease recognized not only by
doctors, but by all men, and regarded as
a sort Of idiocy, now talk easily, and
glide over little deficiencies of memory,
and are, apart from a not ungraceful, or
at all events not disgusting, physical
weakness, truly men. The younger gem
GRAFTON has, however, scarcely realized
the change in its full extent, and fears
age, therefore, unconsciously, a little
more acutely than it should, though it has
reason for some of It's fear. The lot OF
the old is not the happiest, even if they
are fortunately placed.