On means for the prolongation of life / by Sir Henry Weber.

  • Hermann David Weber
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On means for the prolongation of life / by Sir Henry Weber. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    dition of their own families and descendants ; they were often able to give wise counsel, and to show the way to progress and success ; they were eager to read and to learn, and never found a day too long. My friend Dr. Frank reminds me of the conversation on this subject between Socrates and Cephalus in Plato’s “ Republic,” where Cephalus maintains that those who possess a well- regulated mind find old age no intolerable burden, but, on the contrary, are more happy in the mental repose and freedom from passions. Many of my own friends who had been pessimistic in their youth and early manhood have become optimistic in advanced life, attended by “hope, the kind nurse of old age.” I am convinced, from a large experience, that the manner of living required for the prolonga- tion of life is irksome only at the beginning, that it becomes easy by habit and leads to health of mind and body, to increased usefulness, to freedom from suffering, and to happiness much greater than that to be obtained by yielding to the desire of indulgence in sensual or frivolous enjoyment. When I hear that a life of work and moderation is tedious, I am always reminded of the words of Fernando in “The Tempest” : “ And most poor matters Point to rich ends.”