Hattiesburg daily progress. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 18??-1909, 1903-11-10
OLD AGE AND ACTIVITY.
Sever Are But Always 10
BE Blessed in the Matter Of
Taking Rest.

How shall We so order our existence
that we may escape the bitter disapDoint-
ments of age? The greatest sage can lay
down no rule; but one of the best means
Of being happy is to remain active and
useful as long as life abides with Us. says
the Philadelphia Ledger. A common
criticism of Americans which has some
justice IN it is that they never take the
leisure to enjoy life. Early and late
they are striving and working; they
never are, but always to be blessed; after
4 career Of hard labor and struggle thcy
keep on telling and Inoiling; after win
Eing a competence they eagerly seeG a
greater fortune. and at last die in hor-
ness, after a life Of feyerish activity,
without having tasted the sweets Ct SIC
cess.
In England and on the continent It Is
different. Il is common for men VIC
have amassed a modest competence to re
tire from the cares Of business in middle
age. and to spend the declining years
basking on the sunny slopes Of idlcness.
or in the mild pursuit of pleasure. The
American carries his activity too far. but
who shall say that, consciously or u
consciously. he has not chosen the path
Of wisdom? Old DR.. Johnson said there
was nothing which an elderly man should
so much guard himself against as the
putting himself out to nurse; ard it
should be remembered that the cCGclu
sion reached by the great Burton in his
Anatomy OF Melancholy" was: Be
rot idle; be not solitary" The blade
wears out from rust sooner than from
use, and the man who retires from life
Of activity with the notion that he will
gain happiness is taking the most haz-
ardous Of all steps. Happiness is at
best a delusive and fugitive creature, and
he who hopes to attain It by devotion
10 pleasure is doomed to disappointment.
South says of the person who would be
happy by thus devoting himself to re-
creations. that before long t'he would
fly to the mines and the galleys for his
recreation, and to the spade and the mat
took for a diversion from the misery Of
a continual Unintermitted pleasure. But,
on the contrary. the providence Of God
has so ordered the course Of things that
there is no action, the usefulness of
which has made it matter Of duty and
Of a profession. but a man may bear the
continual pursuit Of it without safety
and lOathing. The same shop and trade
hat employs a man in his youth en-
plOys him also in his age. Every morn
ing he rises fresh to his hammer ard
anvil; ne passes the day in singing; GUS
tom has naturalized his labor to him;
his shop is his clement. and he cannot
with any enjoyment to himself live cat
Of ito
In Che city of Philadelphia there is
centenarian, Of whom newspaper readers
have recently had some account. who is
4 fine example of the worker gaining
happiness by keeping active. This old
piano stringer has labOred 60 years at
his trade and is capable workman. His
health is good and his faculties have re-
NAMED unimpaired. There is a great and
important law of nature at work in cases
like these; mind and body are made for
use; if we use them. we shall keep them
strong and healthy; if we use them not,
we lose the capacity to use them effect
lively. On their activity depends health
of body, mind ard soul. Many persons
are not compelled to work for living;
others cannot always obtain suitable en-
ployment; but the safe rule for rich or
poor Is to have some interest, some pur-
suit in which the mind or body is eXer-
cised all through life Many man who
was miserable before has gained happi-
ness even by riding hObby-by studying
some period of the worlds history. by
gardening by visiting the places CT in
tcrest in the town or country in which
le lives. The wise counsel for all is to
work or play. and to work as if you were
playing Sydney Smith says finely:
4 am convinced that it is for long
time in every mans power to determine
whether he will be old or not. The out
ward marks of age we are all of us very
willing to defer, forgetting that We may
wear the inward bloom of youth with
true dignity and grace and be ready to
learn and eager to give pleasure to
others. to the latest moment Of our ex-
ic+opcav