THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS 



feminine with the masculine mind seems to imply a 

 disregard of the eternal harmonies. But the biologist 

 assures us that the contrasting is not without a certain 

 warrant, in one case as in the other. It appears that 

 every individual, as viewed from the biological stand- 

 point, is the victim of that law of atavism which decrees 

 that each single organism shall tend to reenact in its own 

 life-cycle the history of its race. Thus the child ex- 

 hibits many reminiscent traits of our early savage an- 

 cestors; the young man has the enthusiastic ambi- 

 tions of a young and lusty nation; the middle-aged 

 man should have the sober and mature judgment of a 

 practical nation in its prime; and the old man may be 

 expected to exhibit the decrepitude of a degenerate 

 nation verging toward the abysm. 



So it would follow that to the man in middle life, 

 grown worldly wise, not to say blase, the ambitions of 

 youth would seem to belong to a period of adolescent 

 and visionary enthusiasm and to partake of the nature 

 of vanity and folly; while to the old man, basking in 

 reminiscence and beset by present infirmity, the world 

 will seem a less pleasant place than it was in days of 

 yore, and the enthusiasms of the new generation will 

 appear as foolish vagaries, departing absurdly from the 

 wise order of the elder day. 



And true enough we find it, in any generation, that 

 youth is contemptuous of age and age intolerant of 

 youth; somewhat to revert to our atavistic explana- 

 tion as barbarian and man of culture, brought face to 

 face, regard each other with mutual mistrust, contumely, 

 and lack of understanding. 



[168] 



