The Fruit-Farm and Old Age 341 



in a sound body ; even a soimd mind in an unsound 

 body. It is not the most powerful mind in the most 

 powerful body, but simply the sound mind respon- 

 sive to Nature till the end. Not Plato's mind, for 

 that was his alone; nor Samson's body, for that was 

 Samson's. But your mind in yoiu* body, in yoiu* 

 world. Perhaps yoiu* world is the Fruit Valley; 

 mere locality makes no essential difference. I am 

 thinking of men and women who grow old fruit- 

 fully, — ^performing their functions till the close of 

 life's last day, each after its kind. For every man 

 has a natural life, if he but knows, and his supreme 

 function is to live that life. Is it to be old at thirty 

 or at eighty? Is it to use up the springs of mind 

 and body while yet in the dew of youth? 



The uselessness of old age and the indifference 

 towards it, to-day, in the Fruit Valley, — and possi- 

 bly in other valleys, — are the natural result of ways 

 of living. Old age reaps what it sows. Did the 

 pioneer labor for meat and raiment only? Was 

 yesterday's thought in the Valley to have greater 

 riches to-day? Where else in the world are such 

 wonderful gardens, flowers, walks, vistas, as at 

 Monte Carlo? And there are other things at 

 Monte Carlo also. Some of these are not shown. 

 They are not even reported. They are buried in 

 haste. 



Youth to-day is the product of yesterday. The 

 fathers labored for riches and many of them quite 

 forgot, the while, for whom they were toiling. 

 Neglected children attract less attention than 



