The age-herald., 1901-01-06
A DISCUSSION ON THE
 GENTLE ART OF YOUTH

Copyright, 1900, by the cosmographic Co.)
 In the youngest week of the young cen tury our thoughts naturally turn to youth.
 It is strange that in this age, when we are reported to be working ourselves to untimely death, either at making money or spending it, we should at the same time be making unprecedented advances towards achieving perpetual youth There are ap- parently contradictory features about this phenomenon. But We must distinguish be- tween certain maturity of mind and physical old age. What is this maturity?
 We commonly find it manifested by those who have reached the limits of the experi- enco which their particular environment has afforded them. Its attainment varies,
 then, according to the capacity of the indi- vidual and according to the scope and char acter of the circumstances amidst which he exists. Obviously, if the capacity be small or the circumstances be narrow, maturity must early supervene. It is a strictly rela- tive term. Hodge, among his cows and cab bages, Is mature at twenty-fiwe. Lord Ba- con- who took all knowledge to be his prov ince, might still have been young today had he kept alive!
 Now, there is no doubt that our grand fathers and great-grandfathers became ma dI tt InucH edTllST age ludu WS uOs Why? It can only be because our environ ment Is vastly more extensive and multi form than theirs was. Art discovery, in- vention, science, have multiplied almost 1n- finitely the subjects of knowledge. Live we as long as we may, we are conscious that
 yet shall remain but as children in re-
 spect of what there remains for us to be-
 come acquainted with To pretend to ma
 turity in the face of such conditions would
 be farcical Only fools or hermits can be
 mature nowadays. There is too much go-
 ing on; we are too constantly reminded of
 our ignorances. This demon of electricity,
 though he may wear us into our graves with his telephones and telegraphs, yet postpones our maturity to an indefinite fu- ture, because he keeps us wondering what he will do next.
 But this Is one side only of the matter
 Though mental maturity and physical old
 age are not the same thing, yet the pres
 ence of the former Is very sure to hasten
 the advent of the latter When the mind
 has got to the end of its tether, be 1t a
 short or a long one, 1t will net be long ere
 the shoulders stoop and the gait becomes
 feeble. The man grows old because his thoughts no longer have anything fresh to feed on. On the other hand, though the Sleepless friction and restlessness of our
 modern civilized life may wear gut our bod ies unawares, yet, dying, we shall die young
 because the same influences which shatter our nerves and ruin our digestions keep the genius of youth alive and deathless in our i minds,
 Such being our predicament, what should our procedure be? Unquestionably, so to l utilize our new enlargement of radius as 1 that, while maintaining it's juvenating ef- | feet upon our meta physical entity, it may 1 be prevented from producing premature | physical exhaustion. The problem is by no | means in soluble; had not the sudden | growth of the world of mind excited and nronecupiad mt Of all of mOdera- l ton and proportion, we would not have | permitted ourselves to be so caught nap | ping. As we become accustomed to the new dispensation of wonder and marvel we shall 1 learn to protect ourselves against its dele | terious aspects There is no reason in na- l ture why our bodies should not stay young 1 as long as our thoughts do so. Science, which has served the latter only too well 1 of late, may now turn its attention to forti- l flying the former and relieving the strain l in that direction, and presently Methuselah | himself will be a fcol to us.
 But in truth, this is not so much a fore l cast of what we may be as a statement of | what has begun to be already. The resolve l to be young, physically as well as mentally, | Is in the air. There Is the Don't worry l fad to begin with; an admirable principle
 which cannot be too vigorously inculcated, l Then there is the new wisdom in diet and | hygiene. We are learning what to eat, and | how; that fresh air is better than cock 1 tails, and that cleanliness in all things Is
 not only next to godliness. but to bodily | immortality. Finally. there is the science
 Of exercise, which is being preached from
 a hundred different pulpits of physical cul- l ture each of which professes to possess the | only true doctrine, but all of which convey | nearly the same truth Whether we re- I gard our bodies as an aggregation of cells | or just as simple, unscientifc limbs, trunk
 and entrails, is of small practical moment | the point is that every part of our frames
 should daily be exercised so far at least as | to let 1t know that it is alive and must per- l form the functions which life allots to it
 And all useful exercise is summed up ir
 the injunction to resist gravitation: to be
 light and upward tending of step and car | riage: for we invariably find that old agt | is dragging downwarda sagging Of lint and contour, a yielding to that everiastinl