The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1905-03-04
Or. OSLER SCORED BY.
FACTS FROM HISTORY,
COMMERCIAL-APPEAL GIVES A
LIST OF ILLUSTRIoUs PER-
SoNAGES WHO DID THEIR
BEST WORK AFTER THE AGE
OF FORTY.


Yellow journalism doesn't seem to be
in 1t these days with theyellow college
professor. A DR.. osler OF Johns Hop.
kins University---no kin to osler Joe.
has created sort Of mayonnaise sensa-
ton by declaring that. nothing is done
in the world by man more than forty
years old, and that men Of sixty should
be retired or chloroformed. Besides
setting old age twenty years forward,
this is an assault on old age that cannot
be allowed % pass unchalskbgea.
1t has long been standing subject Of
debate as to which were dc more agree
able, the pleasures Of maniory, pertains
ing TO old age, or the pleasures of hope,
pertaining to youth. one Of the great
eat Of English poets has written an ode
on the pleasures of memory and another
has written fully as notable a poem on
the pleasures Of hope. We will not un-
dertake TO decide the eternal question:
but certainly after reading Samuel
Rogers on memory, no one can say that
ago has not its compensations and de-
lights Whether they quite equal the
morning raptures Of youth is another
question.
Many peosle have unquestionably a
horror OF old age. Tho heyday IN the
blood Is indeed tame, and many Of the
starry Illusions OF life are then lost.
Just beyond stands the grim white spec
ter, pitilcss onlooker at the game. 1t
seems period Of gathering shadows, OF
decaying energies, Of fading mem cries.
Yet, as Cicero shows In his immorra /
essay, Do Senectute, old age may be
made beautiful, and Its pleasures are
not to be despised. That many persons
dread old age as the portal to death
true, but the consultations Of philosophy
and religion are so vital TO no one as to
the old man.
Prof. Osler's contention. that old ages
Is crime will, Of course, hardly be
taken seriously, no matter how seriously
the professor may take IL himself. But
his assertion that nothing is accom-
piished after man is forty Is refuted
by perfect storm OF facts, The nor.
NAL span OF life is three score years and
ten, and II would be grave reflection
on nature, II three-seventh of this pe-
riod we're barren waste. II Is true
that many OF the great men. Of the world
Like Alexander, Byron, Shelley, Pitt
and so on-had accomplished much be-
fore they were forty. But, on the other
hand, julius Caesar, Shakespeare, Bis
marck, Gladstone, Sir Robert Peel,
Jefferson, Darwin, fspen-
Ger, Goethe, Schiller, aud hosts OF 9th :
ars, were not obsolete, when they had
passed the forty line.
Sophocles was eighty when he wrote
fOedipus". Chaucer at sixty wrote his
Canterbury Tales. Goethe did not
complete his "Faust" until he was more
han eighty. Cato learned Crock at
,irhty. Simonides won the prize OF
verse when he had passed the four score
INIT. Washington was forty : three
when he became commander-in -chief OF
he Revolutionary forces. Milton COM
,leted paradise Lost" at flfty-seyen
Ericsson at fifty-four built the Monitor
Ind revolutionized naval warfare. Pas
eur became the founder OF bacteria loey
Ifter he was fifty.
Washington penned his Farewell A d.
iress at sizty-four. Jenner annou ncod
he discovery OF vaccination at forty
line. Lincoln was .forty-eight when he
'ngaged Stephen A. Douglas in that
historic series Of debates. Disrae Ii had
made but little impression on the Eng
ish Parliament when he was forty.
Johann Kepler was 80 years old whe n
le gave to the world his discovery Of the
aw OF the distance OF the planets from
he sun.
Francis Bacon was 80 years old when