Science. OUGHT ONE TO BE KILLED AT SIXTY ?

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1583, 26 August 1882, Page 2 (Supplement)

Science. OUGHT ONE TO BE KILLED AT SIXTY ?

Huxley is credited -with the suggestion that inasmuch as a man adopts no new scientific theroies at sixty years of age he might as well be killed. It is assumed that at that age a man has some settled convictions about a great many perplexing matters. Has thrown overboard a great many theories, has sifted the facts bearing on a j great many more, and has put under his feet a pretty solid platform. Humboldt was in the very hey-day of his investigations at sixty. He was a young man at that age. Agassiz reached his prime at that age.' or rather would have reached it had he not overworked and brought on a brain disease. In the last years of his life he was as ready to adopt any new idea in science if once he could # find a satisfactory demonstration, as ever before. The fact was, that in an important, sense Agassiz was the first to propose, the doctrine of evolution.* r He did not push his conclusions so far as Darwin, but lie foreshadowed and clearly outlined that theory. At ' sixty he' stood on the borderland of discovery, and r only wanted a score of years more 1 to haye 1 made v' momentous discoveries in the near outi- ' lying fields, .."which he had overlooked , fronvthe height§"h'e-h'ad attained.' 1 /^TlieVe'isVclaW'qf irieuVhp are, old at hniddle.age? grow". ally mom' » liSdi/l^u'ls^Sariy,,,' It I TOigh||K^^ell-Jc^|a'p j sScute '?the f inquires ' sAI these p'e'ople^^atC'Tiolfj'precd'cious ?? v'lf j.*/^, 2ij*i?fe£v>tS*^*'*»^?'i?^P^iiT?»' ( ik W*Vv\*^ Jl'^^>^J 1 '^^>^4 V v»»V*'ik'ti f carrj;^pitrall

itnmatiuity. They are frequently ,wind-* falls, dropping early and disappearing] early. The plodding young fellows who; pound out everything by the hardest* blows, and who are frequently made the butt of many a joke for dullness, mature late. When their rivals- have-gone overthe grade, are bald-headed and prematurely old, these stolid, patient, oxlike men are just beginning to mature. They have hardly opened their eyes to the world about them. They will beyoung at' sixty, and even at seventy, if they take care of themselves. And, being young, they will be as ready for any fresh investigations as the men of thirty. Columbus set out on one of his later voyages when he had nearly reached the age of seventy. It was a voyage of discovery. , He^hacT obtained a glimpse of the new world on previous voyages, and wanted to see more of it — wanted to find, if possible, the short passage to India, which is now obstructed' by the' Isthmus of Dai icn. Professor Huxley's theory of progress only applies to a class of men who 'mature early, and who are really old at middle life. One might pick out the class of men in advance". He might go among a' group of young men, and .after studying their peculiarities for a time, predict, with great certainty, what per cent, would T3top growing early, and what proportion would grow as long as they lived. Ninetenths of the very precocious young men are never heard of by the public at fovty years of age. At sixty, according to Professor Huxley's theory, they might as well be killed, so as far future progress could give the.ni any value. They have passed the dead line early, and are prematurely old in spirit. They were probably old when they were born, were old at ten years, and were prodigious old fellows at twenty years, knowing much more than their instructors. At thirty there was nothing more in the world which they had not learned which is woith knowing. If any new subject, science or theory is launched, they don't want to hear anything about it — they have sounded all depths and heights, and there is nothing new under the sun. All mental groAvth has been attained. There is no need of taking him off at sixty, as Professor Huxley suggest ; he will take himself off gradually, just as a tree dies at the top, having less and less foliage every year, until it is finally a dry trunk form top to bottom. De Lesseps at seventy- five years, after executing one of the gieatest engineering enterprises of the time, undertakes another still more difficult, with all the freshness and vigoi of a young man. He belongs to the young old boya, who know nothing about the decadence of age. Why should not men prosecute voyages of discovery as long as they lived ? —if not as Clumbus did, in some of the fields of science or related fields ? The difference between prematurely old men and young old men is, that the first mentioned class affect to ' know everything. They have beaten the bush early and bagged the game. The other class are continually beating the bush for new game, They are hungry for new discoveiies. It is the diifence between growth and decay. - If at sixty a man wiil accept no new. theoiy, ' make no -new explorations, and looks ,upon all • those who are , making investigations as visionary, if not dangerous men, he 'is as good as, dead. He may enjoy something akin -to' an animal ' existence after that, but lie has passed the dead line, and there is nothing left for him but mild decadence. There was an old minister who often prayed that the freshness and enthusiasm of youth might be preserved to him in all his years. And praying and striving for it he was always a yonug man ; at four score and ten he was the delightful companion of children, as he was for those of maturer yeais. It was the elder Lord Derby who accustomed to having a good time with same of liis boon companions, on one occasion hearing iiis son approaching exclaimed: " We must hush up now, for the old man is coming." The freshness of youth which lasts for a life-timo, is partly a matter of endowment and partly of cultivation. Those who have it are never old. They are always ready for voyages of discovery. Life is fresh and buoyant to the last. They never lose their interest in. the world, And leave it glad that they have lived in it, and that they did not become prematurely old at middle age. — San Fnauwo Bulletin.