Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1892-02-26
ADVANTAGES OF OLD AGE.
Poets, Philosophers, and Statesmen Who
Have Lived Long and Well.

Poets, Philosophers, and Statesmen Who
Have Lived Long and Well.
Sir James Crichton- Browne has
enumerated instances of ong-lived per-
sons possessing all their faculties un.
impaired, and opened up a subject full
Of interest, and even the large space
occupied by his address did not allow
him fully to develop. 1t seems ply
Biological law that the functions of the
body must be kept in exercise in order
to maintain their efficiencies, and it is
true of the body as of the mill or any
other machine that will rust out from
disuse sooner than wear out by employ
ment
The fact is constantly observed in
persons engaged in commercial pur-
suits, who retire at the age of sixty,
and then fall into rapid decay, while
professional men remaining at work
preserve their vigor often for another
twenty years. 1t is a sad thing to see
the nerve centers decay with a corre-
spending weakness of body and mind,
but it is still sadder to witness, with a
wrinkling of the skin, corresponding
shrinking of the BRAIN allowing vanity
and some of the weakly passions, which
had been kept in suppression, to come
again to the fore.
How different is the spectacle when
the organ is kept in its integrity by
constant use and the mental faculties
preserved in all their prestine force.
We have only to look around and to see
our poets bishops, judges, ministers of
state and medical men long-lived and
still in mental vigor while working at
their respective avocations Very re-
markable, too, is it that, as Sir James
Crichton-Browne observed, the freedom
of language will remain as good as
ever; an example of this was observed
but lately in discussion on the Lon.
don university questions, when two of
the most logical and well-expressed
speeches were made by octogenarians.
We can at the present time point to
statesmen and lawyers of great age
still before the public as not long ago
we could see Lord Palmerston, Lord
Brougham Lord Lyndhurst and others.
In former times we may remember
Newton living to be eighty-fve, while
Sophocles is said to have lived to be
ninety, and Plato not much short of
this 1t is clear that hard work does
not kill. The toll, however, must be
genial and diversified The man OF
business often has no occupation be-
sides his breadwinning, whereas a
medical man has variety of subjects
to interest him.
speaker at the recent international
congress showed by experiments upon
school children when three or four
sums of arithmetic were given in sue
cession that each sum showed an in
feriority to the previous one, both in
correctness and regards the time If
which it was completed. The one
faculty employed was gradually ex
hausted, fresh piece of evidence show
ing necessity for diversity of work
In the treatment of persons with men
tai trouble or worry the very wors
method is to rely too much on what il
called rest, meaning thereby leaving
the patient without other employment
than to brood over his sorrows. Tru,
rest to the mind is only obtained by thu
occupation of other faculties reused
into action by new surroundings
There is no reason why old age SHOULD
not be as happy and as enjoyable a
any other period of life If old person.
be asked as to their consciousness o
age they will all with one consent de
clare that there exists nothing of tn
kind An old person has knowledg
of his age in the same way as hi
friends; he sees it by looking in tn
mirror, by remembrance of past events
or the loss of contemporaries, but he /
not constantly carrying about with hin
the conviction or feeling that he is old
he is thus still able to occupy himsel
in the business and pleasures of life
Button spoke of his green old age a
one of the happiest periods of his life
although the kind of pleasures then ez
- perienced are, of course, different fror
}. those of youth; and when decay comes
b and man is becoming free from tn
8 remembrances of all earthly things
IS then, as Sir James Paget says land n
e better example could be found of flu
e mental activity by continued work.,
l. may be so ordered on purpose that tn
II spirit may be invigorated and undi
d turbed in the contemplation of tn
| Frightening future Another writer
d speaking of old age in reference to tn
decease of an eminent barrister, ais
r maintained that the highest facultie
IS are kept keen by constant exercise, an
n the brain vigorous by constant actio
q and renewal.
II The understanding has often been
N the highest perfection in quite az
l. vanced old age, and that has been til
best period of human life 1t is tn
time when the rage and storm of pa
n sion have died away, when the jea
ousies and cares of career have cease
NJ and been forgotten, when memo,
1t fingers upon all that is bright at
1t charming in the past and when hoI
TO scatters her most glowing tints owe
S. fast approaching future; or, in til
IS words of Sir J. Crichton-Br Browne hiu
" self: eve are able to see in old as
I'd glimpses of the truth that it's chi
Sc glory consists not in the remembrance
If of feats of prowess, nor in the egotist
V. exercise of power, but in the conque
of peevish weakness, in the brightne
IS, of hope, and in the discrimination
ne happiness around.
e, Depend upon it the best antisept
tn against senile decay is an active int
a. est in human affairs, and that tho
keep young longest who love most
In the same key did Oliver WendC
n, Holmes, the laureate of old age, sill
a when some young ladies presented hi
with loving cup in his eightieth yea
h.