Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-01

OF Pennsylvania. Anotaer American who
did good. memorable wefk after forty was
c csn " " ,eS .ss Gss sh1oass
Georgia. and conducted several other notii-
BILE affairs GEM Grant, 4 believe had
also the misforturie to be past forty when
try has produced. Anossler American, not
much his inferior had similar misfor-
tune.
refer to Gen. RobertE. Lee. who was
no less than ffty-five when he took COM
mand OF the army ef Virginia. We all
know how he mAnaged I'll Admiral Farra-
gut could not have done much better at
thirty-nine than IN did IN his sixty-fourth
year at the immortal victory OF Mobile
bay.
Later than this I'VE see General Roberts
going at the age Of sixty-seven to South
Africa, when the@ British campaign had
about gone to pieces. bringing order and
victory out of failure In few weeks and
leaving to finish the work Lord Kitchener,
himself well past forty. The great Franco
German war Of 1870 was conducted on the
umph by Marshal Won MoItke, aged sew
enty. while Bismarck who accompanied
him and controlled the consolidation of the
German empire was f1fty-fve. THEIRS at
the close of that war was president of
France at seventy-three. Lord Beacons-
field, who became premier of Great Brit
ain at s1xty-four, practically took the lead
at the congress of Berlin when seventy
ward of Russia. as he also did during the
war and gave her tortuous diplomacy one
Of the very few rebuffs it has ever received.
Fixed Rules Absurd.
But enough examples have been cited out
OF many thousands to show the absurdity
OF applying any fixed rule of DEVELOPMENT
or man, whether individually or coIlec-
lively. What we want to know fs where
were the men under forty who ought to
nave taken the positions of eminence
aohieved by these men, who had no right
or title to usurp the fame and eminence
t ttiat 9eionged, according to DR.. Osler. to
.neir JUNIORS DR.. Osler does not need to
De told that his claim that such cases are
ouS 70 long preparation Is mere ouibblfne
-, mat Is not the point at issue: he eyades
naI qu o1s. which Is. whether good, origi-
liai, Vaiuaple work can be done after forty
ana whether one should have work at ali
aIter sixty. We assert that he fs wrong
ana pr1ng more examples and facts than
ne. He also urges that such ca seq are ex-
ceptional, and therefore prove his theory
OF development. But 1t may be reasonably
replied that In proportion to the number or
men men past forty. who are naturally fewer
o anan .nose under Iorty, men fit for the
average pursuits of life, excepting perhaps.
Puglllsts and athletes, and the like. who
ole early, are quite as numerous as in the
lesser age, and especially in mental DUR
suits, and the adjustment of the matter ia
one that may be safely left to Individual
circumstances. There Is a tendency inst
now to regulate this matter by hard and
fast laws. which makes 1t the more i'm
portant that men of position and repute
Ike DR.. Osler. should avoid encouraging
the army of cranks who on yarious i'll
judged pretexts, are ever clamoring to re-
duce this so-called land of freemen to a
land of slaves. If they could have their
way we should be leveled to the system of
ancient Sparta, the worst tyranny the
World mas ever seen. The greatest caution
should be used in enacting special laws and
regulations Numerically opposed to great
natural laws, and it should never be for
gotten that the individual Is not made for
the state, but the sta tie for the Individual
The farther we depart from this funda-
mental principle of advanced modern civil
lzatlon the nearer is the doom of the re-
pubic s. G. w. BENJAMIN