46 THE STORY-BOOK OF SCIENCE 



with the serene majesty of strength. If old age is 

 the portion of the strong, the ox ought to live for 

 centuries. " 



"I should think so too," assented Jules. 



" Quite wrong, my dear children; the ox, so 

 big, strong, massive, is old, very old, at twenty or 

 thirty years. What to us would be verdant youth 

 is for it decrepit old age. 



"Let us pass on to the horse. You see I do not 

 take my examples from among the weak; I choose 

 the most vigorous. Well, the horse, as well as its 

 modest companion, the ass, scarcely reaches more 

 than thirty or thirty-five years." 



"How mistaken I was!" Jules exclaimed. "I 

 thought the horse and ox strong enough to live at 

 least a century. They are so big, they take up so 

 much room!" 



"I do not know, my little friend, whether you can 

 understand me, but I want to inform you that to take 

 up a great deal of room in this world is not the way 

 to live in peace and to enjoy a long life. There are 

 people who take up a lot of space, not in the body 

 they are no bigger than we but in their pretensions 

 and their ambitious manceuvers. Do they live in 

 peace, are they preparing for themselves a venerable 

 old age ? It is very doubtful. Let us remain small ; 

 that is to say, let us content ourselves with the little 

 that God has given us ; let us beware of the tempta- 

 tions of envy, the foolish counsels of pride ; let us be 

 full of activity, of work, and not of ambition. That 

 i> the only way we are permitted to hope for length 



of (];. 



