Old Bodies, Young Minds

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 765, 19 March 1954, Page 11

Old Bodies, Young Minds

ONALD HAMBLETON, who interviewed Bertrand Russell, Laurence Housman, Gilbert Murray and Walter de la Mare in "The Experience of Age," a BBC feature heard over 3YC, was something of a sobersides himself, but perhaps the quiet judicious approach was necessary to the job. There is not much evidence of "dotage’ nowadays, and most certainly not here, where the voices were remarkably youthful. All four men admitted to a slackening off of their faculties and staying power, though the mental burnishing of a lifetime leaves them considerably in ad-» vance of most of us. It was surprising to hear the word "useful" coming into the speech of Bertrand Russell and Walter de la Mare. Possibly their desire to remain "useful" gives us a clue to their alertness and continued enjoyment of life, yet it had an odd mundane ring, more especially in the mouth of the poet whose work, if it is useful, stretches the meaning of the word beyond its customary limits. Heretical as it is not to like

\ the word, I don’t. There are men who spend their old age like lizards in the sun, They are less articulate, less the successful figureheads of civilisation, and an interview with a few such men, while difficult to engineer, might prove equally interesting and a good deal

more provocative.

Westcliff