millions after he was seventy-five years old. These are but a few of the names at hand.
Coming down to the present day, and to men who are in advanced life, and living and working amongst us, we might mention our beloved Mark Twain, now seventy, who failed in business for a heavy amount at sixty years, has paid his debts to the last dollar and has retrieved his own fortunes, whose writings at three-score and ten are scarcely less amusing than those of his youth, besides being vastly more instructive. Dr. Wier Mitchell is now seventy-six, and after a life of distinguished services to the world in his profession he is still active, and in the present year is completing a work of fiction which is thought to be his best. Dr. Mitchell did not begin writing until he was past forty; since when he has published various scientific works as well as books of fiction. Andrew D. White is now seventy-three, has performed important diplomatic missions up to the age of seventy, and has contributed much to philosophy and letters since he reached sixty. Professor Simon Newcomb, now seventy, did not begin to write until he had passed forty, was called to the chair of mathematics at Johns Hopkins University at the age of forty-nine, and his mind is still undimmed and vigorous. Professor Goldwin Smith is now eighty-two; most of his work has been done since he passed fifty years, he is yet writing, and it is still a pleasure and profit to read anything that comes from his pen. John Hay[1] is to-day, at the age of sixty-seven, with the exception perhaps of Benjamin Franklin, the greatest diplomat America has ever produced. He was appointed minister to England at the age of fifty-nine and secretary of state at sixty. J. Pierpont Morgan is now sixty-eight; his greatest achievement—the greatest industrial organization the world has ever known—the formation of the United States Steel Corporation, was long after he reached the age of sixty years, and nobody has thus far perceived any weakening of his mental powers. Andrew Carnegie is in his seventieth year; has achieved his uncounted millions since he reached fifty years, and his intellect to-day is sufficiently strong so that when he speaks the whole world pauses to listen.
The world's need of men of advanced years has perhaps never been so well presented as in Nathaniel S. Shaler's book, 'The Individual,' the main purpose of which was to present an account of what man's individual life means in the great order. In considering that valuable work it is well to bear in mind that five years ago, when it was written, Professor Shaler was in his sixtieth year, and that he is still professor of geology in Harvard University and dean of the Lawrence Scientific School.
In the chapter wherein Professor Shaler considers the question of
- ↑ This article was in type before the lamented death of John Hay.
