The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1905-10-12
THE JOY OF AGE.
Misinterpretation of DR.. 0sIer's
Statement.

| statement.
DR.. William Osler, late professor IL
John Hopkins University, Baltimore
met with a great deal Of undeserved
notOriety because he was misunder-
stood when he said the creative faculty
disappeared usually at the age Of forty
impression that mans usefulness
ceased at that time, but that the imag-
NATIVE faculty was not as active then
as IL was In earlier years. when men
are green and raw In judgment and put
forth many things that they wish 10
have suppressed later on. His little
jest about chloroforming those who
lag superfuous on the stage" was
meant to apply only to teachers who
failed to move with the advanced
thought and had O special humorous
reference to himself, but the miscom-
prehension and exaggeration Of the
press has magnifed bis utterance and
given 1t O sweep he never intended
Must Seek New Fields.
When the acquisition Of knowledge
Is used merely as a means through
which to earn bread, that is the end
Of mans career, whether he be thirty
or forty or a thousand years old. Men
who seek no new fields of exploration
nor carry forward to- fulfillment any
work they attempt In early days are
mere drones In the hives of life.
DIR. 0sler, who Is close to the sixty
year line, has gone to England TO take
n professorship Of medicine In Oxford
University, which will without doubt
lead to an increase Of his professional
fame, which did not come to him until
after he had passed the half century
post In his journey Of life. His part
ing injunction to his medical asso-
ciates In America, at the Washington
meeting in May, was TO follow the
Golden Rule In al their actions, and to
cultivate that moderation which Is said
to be the golden thread running
through all the virtues. This advice
Is not new, but II cannot be repeated
too often In an age when many men
are striving to shove their neighbors
to the wall In their desire to occupy
the middle Of the road themselves.
Man is naturally selfish animal and
needs TO be often reminded that he
must do unto others as he would have
them do unto him, even II he desires
to attain more worldly success. The
man who has no consideration for his
laboring fellows Is likely to find no con-
sideration extended to him when the
hour of misfortune comes.
Best Work Late In Life.
DIR. Osler never deprecated age,
knowing that mans best work Is done
after age has mellowed his under
standing and strengthened his judg-
ment. There are numerous examples
of what virility in age can do all along
the track Of history. II was seen In
Benjamin Franklin. William =. Glad
stone, is seen in Edward Everett Hale,
Lord Kelvin, Charles H. Haswell, en-
gineer and author, still at the age of
81 at his desk In New York, and other
names will occur by scores to general
readers.
1t Is an infexible law Of nature that
the being who does not progress must
retrograde. There Is no place on this
fearful ascent Of life where, spiritually
and Intellectually, We are not fore I'd
to go forward lest We slip back. But
it is a happy provision in nature that
even in the longest life there is no
arbitrarily fixed point Of time where
expansion must cease as If by nat,
where there. are no more heights be-
fore the soul to climb, no more Views
to be obtained, no broadening and ex-
banding Of the vision possible. Al
ways and forever a new bud may be
formed on the topmost bough of the
old tree, even though the trunk be
partly hollow, and the nourishing sap
mount slowly through the bark.