View report page

77
to the ascent to the mountain top. Man ascends until he reaches
30 years of age. Middle age is a variable period; it is the stage
during which he marches along on the plateau of the mountain.
Some men come to the end of middle age, to the end of the plateau,
at 45 or 50, and enter upon the third stage, old age, which may be
likened to the descent from the plateau, a descent that◦oftimes is rapid.
My object is to tell men and women of 40, aye, of 50 or even 60,
how the stage of middle age can be prolonged until 70 or 75, how the
plateau on the mountain top may be made a long one, receding into
the far-distant horizon before the inevitable decline to old age.
What a tragedy it is to see men and women of only 50 stumble
over the edge of the middle-age plateau and descend rapidly to the
grave. It is a black moment when the heralds proclaim the passing
of the dead, and the great officers break their staves. But it is sadder
still when it is the victim's own hand that breaks the staff in public.
Men of 40 have it in their power, not only to avoid disaster at 55 or 60,
but to live through a healthy, active middle age until 70, with yet
another 20 years of comfortable life to look forward to as their strength
gradually fails. During the stage of youth, youth has its modest
" fling," but at 40, and before, we must follow Bacon's advice,
discerning the coming on of years, and thinking not to do the same
things still, for age will not be defied. There can be no place for
"flings" after 30; we must study the pleasures which are the privilege
of maturity. It is our bounden duty to live as long as we can; we
must get the most out of life, and put the most into it that we can for
humanity's sake. The chronic bon viveur, the gay Lothario, the
glutton and wine-bibber who dies early, is a suicide. Jerome K.
Jerome did not approve of suicides, as they pushed themselves into
the next world before they were asked.
To be fit at 40, and to enter into the promised land of a joyous
middle age, with peace at eventide on the horizon of our vision, we
must take early cognisance of what is called our intake and our output,
that is, of the food and drink we consume and of the smooth and
efficient disposal of waste products. We must study the air we
breathe, exercise and rest, circulation and respiration. The consequences
of life's actions and conduct will have to be faced. Nature
never forgets to send in the bill for all our moral and physiological
sins. The body and mind must both be studied. A man's brain may
be perfect, but if the body is neglected or misused disease comes
sooner or later and impairs man's usefulness. It means living soberly,