San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-01-14
ENJOYING OLD AGE.
POETS AND STATESMEN WHO HAVE
LONG AND WELL.

Men with Varied Occu pations Find More
Enjoyment in Declining Years Than
business Men. Because Their Brain
Tissue Is Developed In More way.
Sir James Crichton-B rowner has,
enumerated instances of long lived per.
sons possessing all their faculties uninr
paired, and opened up a subject full of
interest and which even the large space
occupied by his address did not allow
him fully to develop. 1t seems physio-
logical hw that the functions of the
body must be kept in exercise in order
to maintain their efficiency, and it is as
true Of the body as Of the mill or any
other machine, that it will rust out from
disuse sooner than wear out BY employ
ment.o ria
The fact is constantly observed in per-
sons engaged in commercial pursuits,
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 sad thing to see the nerve centers
decay, with a corresponding 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 sup
preston, to como again to the fore.
How different is the spectacle when
the organ is kept in its integrity by con-
slant use, and the mental faculties pre-
served in all their pristine 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 re-
| spective avocations. Very remarkable.
too, is it that, as Sir James Crichton-
Browne observed, the freedom of Ian
| guage will remain as good as ever; an
example Of this was observed but lately
in discussion on the London uniyer-
sity questions, when two of the most
logical and wen expressed speeches were
made by octogenarians. EugrE qva.s
OLD AGE SHOULD NOT BE UNHAPPY.
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-tive. while
Sophocles Is said to have lived to he
| 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 o,
business often has no occupation besides
his breadwinning, whereas a medica
man has variety of subjects to interest
him.
| A speaker at the international con
gress showed by experiments upon schoo
children, when three OF four sums II
arithmetic We're given in succession
that each sum showed an inferiority t
the previous one, both in CORRECTNESS:
and as regards the time in which it wa:
completed The one faculty elupioyeC
was gradually exhausted. fresh piece
of evidence showing the necessity fol
diversity of work. In the treatment o
persons with mental trouble or IVORY
the very worst method is to rely 10,
much on what is called rest, meaning
thereby leaving the patient withoU
other employment than to brood owe
his sorrows. True rest to the mind i
only to be obtained by the orcunatihn /"
other faculties reused into action o,
new surroundings. g 3 w q l.
There is no reason why old age SHOULD
not be as happy and as enjoyable as an!
other period of life. If old persons b
asked as to the consciousness of age the,
\, will all with one consent declare tina
there exists nothing of the kind. An Ole
person has a knowIedgeof his age in thu
same way as his friends: he sees it b!
looking in the mirror, by remembrance
Of past events or the loss of contempt
raries, but he is not constantly carrying
about with him the conviction or feelin!
that he is old; he is thus still able to, oc
cupy himself in the business and pleas
ures of life. E..... r.....-.., ,....t r..-...
| AUTHORITATIVE TESTIMONY. ...
Button spoke of his green old age a
one of the happiest periods in his life. al
though the kind of pleasures then expe
rienced are, of course, different from
those of youth: and even when deca,
comes. and man is becoming free from
the remembrance of all earthly things
then, as Sir James Paget says land II;
better example could be found of full
mental activity by continual WORRY, il
may be so ordered ON purpose that thu
spirit may be invigorated and undis
turbed in the contemplation of the
Frightening future. Another writer