The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1892-02-20
ADVANTAGES OF OLD AGE.
foets, Philosophers, and Statesmen Who
Have Lived Long and Well.

enumerated instances of long-lived per-
sons possessing all their faculties un--
impaired, and opened up subject full
of interest, and even the large space
occupied by his address did not allow
him fully to develop. 1t seems ply
siological 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. It is a sad thing to see
the nerve centers decay with 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 it's 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 five, 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.
A 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 previons one, both in
correctness and regards the time in
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 worst
method is to rely too much on what is
called rest, meaning thereby leaving
the patient without other employment
than to brood over his sorrows. True
rest to the mind is only obtained by the
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 as
any other period of life If old persons
be asked as to their consciousness of
age they will all with one consent de-
clare that there exists nothing of the
kind. An old person has a knowledge
OF his age in the same way as his
friends; he sees it by looking in the
mirror, by remembrance of past events,
or the loss of contemporaries, but he is
not constantly carrying about with him
the conviction or feeling that he is old;
he is thus still able to occupy himself
in the business and pleasures of life.
Button spoke of his green old age as
one of the happiest periods of his life,
although the kind of pleasures then ex-
perienced are, of course, different from
| those of youth; and when decay comes,
and man is becoming free from the
remembrances of all earthly things,
then, as Sir James Paget says land no
better example could be found of full
mental activity by continued work., it
may be so ordered on purpose that the
spirit may be invigorated and undis-
turbed in the contemplation of the
Frightening future. Another writer
speaking of old age in reference to the
decease of an eminent barrister, also
maintained that the highest faculties
are kept keen by constant exercise, and
the brain vigorous by constant action
and renewal.
The understanding has often been in
the highest perfection in quite adj
vanced old age, and that has been the
best period of human life. 1t is the
time when the rage and storm of pas
sion have died away, when the ieal-
ousies and cares of career have ceased
and been forgotten, when memory
fingers upon all that is bright and
charming in the past. and when hope
scatters her most glowing tints over
fast approaching future; Or in the
words of Sir j. Crichton- Browne him.
self: 'We are able to see in old age
glimpses of the truth that its chief
glory consists not in the remembrances
of feats of prowess, nor in the egotistic
exercise of power, but in the conquest
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