Senescence : the last half of life / by G. Stanley Hall.

  • G. Stanley Hall
Date:
1923
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Senescence : the last half of life / by G. Stanley Hall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    54/556 page 22
    atheism as a concession to the public; and so he “refused to recognize a genius who was not honest with himself/' He abhorred Wagner's new “redemption philosophy but for months and years could not bring himself to an open break with him and was for a long time plunged in the depths of gloom. He now became truly lonely and went through a complete inner revolution. He realized that he must henceforth stand alone and work out the prob¬ lem of life by himself. His anxiety as to how the ven¬ erable Wagner would receive his Human, All Too Human was pathetic. When he found he could not pub¬ lish it anonymously, he revised and toned down many of his criticisms; and deep, indeed, was his grief when, despite the almost fawning letter that accompanied a copy of his book to Wagner, the latter lacked the great¬ ness of soul to understand his sincerity and broke with him forever. At the same time he was emancipating his thought from Schopenhauer, who had hitherto been his sovereign master in the philosophic held. Now it was that he almost completely wrecked his life by living according to the precepts of Cornaro, and his letters show the intense struggle with which he finally resolved to find his own way through life and to abandon his soul to self-expression. He finally resigned his chair of classic literature at Bale and a little later sorted his manuscripts and commissioned his sister to burn half of them. This she refused to do, and it was just these that were the basis of some of the best things he wrote later. After trying residence in many places and various cures, and experimenting with many regimens, he finally re¬ solved to become his own doctor, and it was by his own efforts that he succeeded in prolonging the efficient period of his life. But he felt he had at last struck the right road in The Dawn of Day, which marked the opening of his campaign against popular morality. From this time on, too, he had a deep, new, intense love
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3