Editorial 



423 



ments than those in which the average of life is shorter ? 

 How about long-lived families ? To live long implies the 

 possibility of accumulating large stores of experience. It 

 also implies in most cases a comparative freedom from the 

 disturbing influence of ill-health in early and middle life. It 

 frequently implies also self-control and moderation in all 

 things. 



Wordsworth wrote : " Ah me ! the good die young, but 

 they whose hearts are dry as summer's dust burn to the 

 socket," and then went on himself to the age of 80, in 

 confutation of his own dictum. Goethe lived to be 83. 

 " Paradise Lost " was written by a man aged 57, and who 

 subsequently lived to be 66. " Don Quixote " was the work of 

 a man far past middle age, and could not conceivably have 

 been written by a young one. It is true that Keats died 

 young, but it was of consumption. Plenty of facts on both 

 sides might be collected, but could the balance be fairly 

 struck it would be largely on the side of good health 

 and longevity. It must, we may repeat, take cognisance of 

 the family and not solely of the individual. 



Cognate with the topic just referred to is the question 

 whether the age of parents is a matter of indifference to 

 offspring. Is it an advantage to be born of young parents or 

 of those more advanced in life ? In respect to one half of 

 parentage Nature has placed limits, but they are not such as 

 to preclude possibility of comparison. Many facts might be 

 adduced in support of the proposition that children of very 

 remarkable precocity are often the offspring of middle-aged 

 mothers and almost aged fathers. But precocity does not 

 always imply a progressive brain. 



The Illustrated London News of January 19 contains a 

 pathetic representation of the sale of their children by 

 Russian parents during scarcity. Apparently a purchaser 

 who is leading off a pretty little girl is a Jew. It may be 



