YOUTH VERSUS AGE 



happily chosen ; though the uncertainty of that eighth 

 decade not to mention the ninth makes the experi- 

 ment a doubtful example to attempt to follow. 



Other tireless workers whose prolonged activities 

 have too recently terminated to have been forgotten 

 by any reader of these pages are Gladstone, Bismarck, 

 Von Moltke, Tennyson, Herbert Spencer, and Theo- 

 dore Mommsen. 



Not to multiply examples, it must be clear that a 

 man is not necessarily a fossil in mind because he has 

 reached the stage of life when his bones begin to show 

 an increased deposit of earthy matter. Gray hair 

 is not of necessity associated with mental waning. 



These examples, then, virtually supply the answer to 

 the query with which we started. It seems sufficiently 

 demonstrated that there is nothing inherent in the na- 

 ture of the human organism that forbids one to begin a 

 new work or to push on with an old one because one's 

 life has compassed more than half its normal limit. 

 Surely your life is not of necessity a failure because 

 you have not begun to achieve success at forty, pro- 

 vided always that you have certain exceptional quali- 

 ties of persistency and courage; and the proof of that 

 must be found in the deed. 



If until now you have sought after false ideals, striven 

 in the wrong direction, and you now have oppor- 

 tunity to start out aright, you should now be able to 

 profit by your mistakes. Experience should have 

 taught you something, if it be only what to avoid. 

 Equipped with maturer judgment, you should work to 



12 [I 77 ] 



