DISHARMONIES AND OTHER SHADOWS 589 



§ 7. Senescence and Death, 



Another shadow is senescence and death. It saddens us 

 to see a fine edifice falling into ruins, and though old age is 

 often beautiful in mankind^ the time comes when even beauty 

 goes. Let us recall the picture which we owe to the author 

 of Ecclesiastes: The mind and senses begin to be darkened, 

 the winter of life approaches with its clouds and storms, 

 the arms — the protectors of the bodily house — tremble, the 

 strong legs bow, the grinders cease because they arc few, 

 the apples of the eyes are darkened, the jaws munch with 

 only a dull sound, the old man is nervously weak and startled 

 even by a bird's chirping, he is afraid of even hillock§, his 

 falling hair is white as the strewn almond blossoms, he 

 drags himself along with difiiculty, he has no more appetite, 

 he seeks only his home of rest, which he finds when the 

 silver cord is loosed or the golden bowl broken. 



There is something indescribably pathetic in the decline 

 and the decay when it passes beyond senescence into senility. 

 The bones become lighter and less resistant, the muscles 

 weaker and stiffer, the nervous system slower and less force- 

 ful, the heart less vigorous, the arteries less elastic, the jiarts 

 fail to answer to one another's call, " and then, from hour 

 to hour, we rot and rot ". 



In regard to this dark shadow, it must first be pointed 

 out that the securing of a healthy old age is very largely 

 within man's control, everything depending on the nature 

 of our physiological bad debts. Many are successful in 

 securing an old age such as Cicero praised ; others have one 

 whose days are labour and sorrow. In recent times, the 

 late Professor Metchnikoff has been prominent in maintain- 

 ing that if man led a more careful life, and had a more 



