THE VALUE OF OLD AGE. 313 



THE VALUE OF OLD AGE. 



By JOHN F. CARGILL. 



DO the creative or initiatory faculties of the mind begin to wane 

 at middle life? And would the ransacking of all historical 

 data show that a majority of the greatest things in the world have 

 been achieved by men under forty? To undertake anything like a 

 positive solution of so great a problem is naturally out of the question; 

 but one plain aspect of the matter may be shown — leaving it to the 

 reader, or to some future writer having a passion for statistics, to 

 determine upon which side are ranged the exceptions that prove the 

 rule. It may be said with confidence that one fact is indisputable: 

 We can mention no field in the broad domain of science — including 

 astronomy, geology, biology, psychology, sociology, electromagnetism, 

 electricity, engineering, invention, mathematics or medicine that does 

 not owe much indeed to men of advanced years. This statement holds 

 good of the fields also of mechanics, philosophy, statesmanship, letters, 

 history, finance, music, art, discovery, exploration, navigation and 

 many others. 



A noteworthy beginning may be made with the five great savants 

 who, within the hundred years just past, have given to mankind en- 

 tirely new concepts, new understandings of the universe and of life; 

 have revolutionized the greater sciences, and made it necessary to 

 build anew from the beginning. We will take them in chronological 

 order. Immanuel Kant died in 1804 at the age of seventy-six. His 

 Kritik {' Critique of Pure Eeason') was written, or appeared, after 

 he had reached fifty-seven: a work of such vast comprehensiveness, 

 such subtle, active and far-reaching intellectual resourcefulness, that 

 the world has produced but a handful of men since his day who could 

 fully appreciate or appraise him. His ' Contest of the Faculties ' 

 appeared when he had passed seventy. His primary formulation of 

 the nebular hypothesis was when he was in the thirties; but much of 

 its elaboration was concluded many years afterward. Pierre de La- 

 place, his coadjutor in the hypothesis which shook the world, died in 

 1827 at the age of seventy-eight. Laplace issued the earlier portion 

 of his great ' Exposition du systeme du monde ' at about the age of 

 fifty; and the completion of this monumental work containing the 

 nebular hypothesis was not published until he was past seventy years. 



The next great step forward in enlightenment is from the field of 

 astronomy to that of geology, and we come to Sir Charles Lyell, who 



