LIVING LIBERALLY

Hokitika Guardian, 7 September 1929, Page 6

LIVING LIBERALLY

It was recently reported in our ca' le news that a centenarian club had been founded in London, the members of which pledged themselves by precept and example to further the cause. The Christchurch “ Press ” makes the following comment editorially: “One can only sigh on imagining how dull some of us will be at 100, who already at 30 or 40, can think of nothing better than the careful protraction of 'life. Those who have made the most of life, and those who have most generously helped others to enjoy or endure it, have not Ijeen those who have anxiously reckoned its wear and tear, and nearly calculated the vital, economies which would enable them to see out so many- years more Perhaps they have been sometimes too spendthrift, of days, of talent, or mere nerve and sinew; but even this sad, rich recklessness has been only an excess of the quality mark-rig them all. A touch of carelessness," a refusal to hoard themselves, a fine contempt for the cheese-paring turn ot mind—something like this is genet ally to be seen in those whose lives afford us most to admire and most to be grateful for; and the connection is not an accidental one. What it is pleasant to note, besides, is that those, who live liberally, often live long and grow cld nobly and gracefully. Life loves best those who love her a little off-handedly and live open-handed. If we are to think of a- man who has lived with an obvious relish of the best in life, and has lived usefully in many ways, but largely in communicating that relish, we shall think of Professor George Saintsbury; and he is now well over 80 years of age Put is it even thinkable that Saintsbury ever set himseif to plan how he should live in order to reach 80 as an ‘ able-minded, clearthinking * dilution of himself P His is the sort of old age that we want to last 'for ever: and the thought that u cannot is one that we hasten to put by, when it starts up to disturb us. The same is true of Robert Bridges, of Paderewski, and of many others alive to-day; a short while ago it was true of Thomas Hardy and Edmund Gosse. Yet not one of them is, or was, the sort of man who would water wine to make it last longer. It is doubtful \i bother the deliberate intention of living a long life while in good repair will ensure any of the members of the Centenarian Club an old age towards which the rest of us will entertain the same feelings Anxiety to live long is a poverty-stricken motive for living ; and where there are better ones they usually allow little room for the first and less time to think about it.”