Many men have displayed activity when past four
score. Brougham at eighty-two and Lyndhurst at eighty-eight could
pour forth words of eloquence and sagacity for hours at a time.
Landor wrote his "Imaginary Conversations" when eighty-five, and
Somerville his "Molecular Science" at eighty-eight; Isaac Walton
was active with his pen at ninety; Hahnemann married at eighty
and was working at ninety-one.
J. B. Bailey has published a biography of "Modern Methusalehs,"
which includes histories of the lives of Cornaro, Titian, Pletho,
Herschell, Montefiore, Routh, and others. Chevreul, the
centenarian chemist, has only lately died. Gladstone, Bismarck,
and von Moltke exemplify vigor in age In the Senate of the United
States, Senators Edmunds, Sherman, Hoar, Morrill, and other
elderly statesmen display as much vigor as their youthful
colleagues. Instances of vigor in age could be cited in every
profession and these few examples are only mentioned as typical.
At a recent meeting of the Society of English Naturalists, Lord
Kelvin announced that during the last year 26 members had died at
an average age of seventy-six and a half years; one reached the
age of ninety-nine years, another ninety-seven, a third
ninety-five, etc.
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