THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS 



ing the life term by its well-used hours contains so large 

 a germ of truth that I have thought it worth transcribing 

 here. 



After all, however, this presentation only serves to 

 give graphic illustration to the familiar truth that mere 

 age is not the final test of any man's wisdom or mental 

 state. All about us in everyday life we see men who have 

 attained full maturity of hours, yet who have not 

 achieved, and who never will achieve wisdom. All 

 too many are the men who grow in self-complacent 

 ignorance rather than in knowledge with the increasing 

 hours. 



Yet, on the other hand, it is hardly to be denied that 

 the average man passes through somewhat clearly- 

 marked strata of life with the increasing decades, 

 after adolescence, I mean of course, and before the 

 onset of senility. Nor, indeed, are such phases confined 

 to the life-history of ordinary men. Men of genius 

 exhibit growth and change none the less markedly, as 

 witness the "periods" of such painters as Raphael and 

 Velasquez, or of such a writer as Goethe. 



We have cited sundry instances of men whose mental 

 powers seemed unimpaired at the close of their eighth 

 decade; there are even instances well authenticated 

 where a fair measure of virility has been retained 

 close to the century mark. But on the other hand, 

 we need not go beyond the common experience of man- 

 kind for proof that most men show the weight of years 

 even in their sixth decade. Such an instance as that 

 of Emerson proves that a man of genius of the most 



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