3i 8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the uses of the period of old age, he shows how the presence of three 

 or four generations in a single social edifice gives to it far more value 

 than is afforded by one or two. While the elders may contribute little 

 to the direct profit of the association, they serve to unite the life of 

 the community and bridge the gap between the successive generations. 

 Professor Shaler shows that the average man up to the age of perhaps 

 fifty has little or no time for calm reflection; that the necessities of 

 existence demand that he pursue the gainful life, which is always more 

 or less strenuous. Whatever possible period there may be for the 

 individual to pursue the intellectual life must come afterward. And 

 it does come. Is it necessary to argue that the world needs the assist- 

 ance of the calm reflective mind? Remove this possibility, and man- 

 kind may never be able to learn whether life has either meaning or 

 value — in the larger sense. 



Recurring wars, he says, repetitions of political follies and the 

 successions of commercial disasters, all show the need of adding in 

 every possible way to the strength of the bond between generations, 

 so that the life of society may gain a larger unit of action than is 

 afforded by the experience of most of its active members. If the deeds 

 of any single period could be the result of the experience of three 

 or four generations of experienced men, rather than that of one, civil- 

 ization would be an immense gainer. There would be fewer recitals of 

 failure, fewer reversions toward savagery. This necessity is made 

 evident, he says, because, notwithstanding the resources of our printed 

 records, they convey only imperfectly the quality of one time to that 

 which succeeds it. The real presence of the generations is necessary 

 to the greatest extent that can be had. 



He says that the idea of the apparent uselessness of man in ad- 

 vanced years is a survival from the time when a man's value in warfare 

 was the paramount consideration ; and he adds, " The generation which 

 has seen an aged Gladstone guide an empire ; a von Moltke at the three 

 score limit beat down France ; and a Bismarck at more than three score 

 readjust the Powers of Europe, has naturally enough given up the 

 notion that a seat by the chimneyside is the only place for the elders, 



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