Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1922-08-24
BEST work IS DONE
BY MEN PAST SIXTY
Greatest Achievements Have
Been Wrought by Men in
Sixth Decade of Life.
PHILADELPHIA Record


Edward Bok's remarks about
Sesqulcentennial directors over so
years OF age recall the famous CON
troversy few years ago by the al
legged statement OF DIR. Osler that
man who passed his sixtieth year was
n Mt subject for chloroform.
DIR. Osler always claimed he had
been misquotcd and never seriously
meant what he did say, but the world
at large professed to take serious
view of the matter, and the question of
the duration OF mans mental vlrllity
became n subject OF wide discussion.
Perhaps the most exhaustive article
on the subject was The Age OF
Mental Virility," by w. A. Newman
Dorland, printed in 1908, in which the
writer gave list of 400 OF tho world 6
greatest thinkers and workers in
modern times.
He states that his research was
brought about by conversation with
DIR. Harris a. Slocum over the ten
dency TO relegate middle aged and
older men to the oblivion of innocuous
desuetude to give the more progress
sive and aggressive young men a
clear track I'm the rush TO the front.
In selecting his famous 400" he
grouped them as workers and thinkers
Among the latter he placed the great
warriors and great inventors.
The average initial age OF tho 40t
records was "a years. The workers be-
gan at %, the thinkers al 26. The aver
age duration of mental process was az
years fer the workers. Al years: foi
the thinkers, 80. The longest term oi
duration was shown to be by inventors
40 years.
Seventy-eight per cent closed theii
life. work between 90 and 80 years enC
S5 per cent after the 50th year
Continuing DIR. Dorland says: 9TH,
sixth decade of life has been the mos
prolific in human achievement ant
we'll may be designated the age o
masterwork. In action alone its ac
complishments have revolutionlze|
history. and 1t ie most difficult TO con
ceive what would be tho presen
status OF the worlds affairs had thes
10 years Of individual life never ex
listed.
tDulu flpl ntNs ulSNoFetP
tho American continent, Marlboroug
could not have won his great victor
= of Blenheim. Morse's invention OF tn
telegaphic alphabet would have bee
lost, Richelieu could not have con
cluded the peace OF Westphalia whic
gave Asace- Lorraine to Franc
r Caesar could not have corrected In
v calendar. Cromwell could not have es
O tablished the Protectorate, Lincol
could not have issued his emanc
patton proclamation, Loyola could NJ
have founded the Society OF Jesu
nor Jefferson established the Demo
cratic party. Wyclifr would not hay
made the FIRST complete English vel
sion OF the Bible. nor Luther the FIR
complete translation OF the Boo
Washington could not have becon
first President of the United States.
In fact in a long list Dr. Dorian
shows how between the ages of 90 ar
|" so years were accomplished the gre,
achievements of Swedenborg. Hersh.
Peel, Canning, Edmund Burke, Wa
rem Hastings, Garibaidi, DR.. I,eid
= Button, Darwin, Cuvier. Huxley, Her
. ert Spencer, Hugh Miller, Saint Slmo
- Calico, John VIII. Adam Smit
= Macaulay. Diderot. Tyndall. Reynolt
Velasquez da Vinci. Gainsboroug
. Romney. Titan. Milton. Dante. Coz,
:, lIandseer, Dumas. Hugo, Dicker
Scott. Bach. Handel, Hadyn Yer
:. Wagner. Guizot. Benjamin We
- Fra anklin, Constable, Rubens, Niche
- Angelo, Aristotle, Plato. Goethe. t
y, ~ great historian Gibbon, Edison, Stern
a. Swift. Marshal Tuvenne, Lamartil
:. Machiavelli. John Wanamaker,
a. T. Stewart, j. Pierpont Morgan, A
drew Carnegie. A. ]. Drexel. Comm
gu dore Vanderbilt and other great ca
III tains of industry.
90 Not only have the greatest ACHE,
81 ments been accomplished by men o,
III 80 years of age, but many have be
S9 accomplished by mon over so, over
es and even over so years OF age, and
y would probably interest Mr.. Box
'u know that between the ages OF so a
ne 20 years Napier revolutionized natl
al matics, Levernier reversed the plar
n tary theories, Blucher and Mohke "
n, their greatest battles, Beecher VIZ,
nd his greatest sermons Sardinai Na
s. man his Apologize, Grote his history
T. Greece. Hilman his history Of La
Christianity. Michelet his history
Ill France, Audubon his natural histo
e. Pasteur his work on hydrophot
Cervantes his Don Quixote," But
his Hudilyaa Tnhn Ada ms 90 d.