,how to ,face ,life ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,the ,,art ,,of ,,life ,,series ,edward ,howard ,griggs1 ,editor --------------------- ,how to ,face ,life ,,by ,,stephen ,s4 ,,wise ,rabbi of the ,free ,synagogue1 ,new ,york ,illustration3 ,b4 ,w4 ,h4 logo ,,new ,,york ,b4 ,w4 ,,huebsch ,,mcmxvii ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,copyright1 #aiag1 ,,by ,b4 ,w4 ,,huebsch ,,printed ,,in ,,the ,,united ,,states ,,of ,,america ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,to ,,my ,,loutinjim ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,contents ,i ,,youth ,,preparing ,,for ,,life ,,page #i ,,ii ,,maturity ,,how ,,to ,,serve ,,and ,,achieve ,,page #dh ,,iii ,,age ,,how ,,not ,,to ,,grow ,,old ,,page #fb ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,i ,,youth3 ,,preparing ,,for ,,life 8,how beautiful is youth6 ,how bright it gleams4 ,with its illusions1 aspirations1 dreams6 ,book of ,beginnings1 ,story without ,end1 ,each maid a heroine1 and each man a friend6 ,aladdin's ,lamp1 and ,fortunatus' ,purse6 ,that holds the treasures of the universe6 ,all possibilities are in its hands1 ,no danger daunts it and no foe withstands2 ,in its sublime audacity of faith1 #8,be thou removed1' it to the mountain saith1 ,and with ambitious feet1 secure and proud1 ,ascends the ladder leaning on the cloud40 --,,longfellow3 ,morituri ,salutamus4 ,how to face life1 how to prepare for life1 are questions that must be answered by those who believe1 as ,lecky put it1 that the 8map of life0 must be marked out1 that in the words of ,emerson there is such a thing as the 8conduct of life0 which man is free to determine4 ,we are assured incessantly in these days that we must enter upon a great programme of preparedness for war1--back of which urging lies the assumption that a maximum of preparedness must be arranged in order to secure our land against the menace of aggression or invasion4 ,if a programme of preparedness1 which in the last analysis involves destruction and desolation1 be impossible without the fullest planning1 how much less possible is it to shape a constructive life-upbuilding programme without most careful and adequate preparedness4 ,into the mind of youth must penetrate the ideal of self-preparedness1--not of external preparation for the outward life1 but of inmost preparedness for the inner life4 ,whether or not the preparedness programme be1 as some hold1 more menacing to the soul of ,america than foreign foe can ever become because it marks an immediate invasion of the ,american soul rather than a possible aggression upon ,american soil1 it is certain that life cannot worthily be lived save after preparedness in the fullest sense of the term4 ,it is1 in truth1 easy to stir up excitement and even deeper feeling over a purely external problem such as is that of war-preparedness1 preparing to do something to another whether an individual or a nation or a continent4 ,the easiest way is the way of external preparedness1 the militaristic way1 for it involves a minimum of reasoning4 ,but preparation for life which ,i ask of youth involves the largest measure of reasoning and planning and purposing4 ,it is the hardest way rather than the easiest way1 though the pursuit thereof makes ultimately for the way that is inevitably rightful and unerring4 ,is it needful to urge upon young people that they shall face life with the determination to sketch for themselves a map of life as they see it1 as they purpose1 if so be they purpose1 to make it8 ,what would be said of a military commander who entered upon a land to him unknown without securing in advance the fullest possible data1 without gaining1 as far as it was possible so to do1 an understanding of the outlines of the country he proposed to enter8 ,curiously enough1 it is often imagined that preparation for life is largely a matter of the higher education and exclusively associated with college and university life4 ,this imagining may be due to the circumstance that men and women step out of so-called preparatory schools into higher institutions of learning4 ,one sometimes wonders1 in very truth1 whether1 instead of college preparing men for life1 it were not more fitting to hold that after the college or university experience men need to be repaired if they are rightly to live and toil and serve4 ,my counsel is not for men alone but for men and women1 for youth and maidens alike4 ,let no man venture to offer two kinds of counsel1 one to men and yet another to women4 ,there is only one manner of preparedness for life1 for life is life and it is not one thing for a man and yet another for a woman4 ,though ,i have used the term 8map of life10 map is hardly a happy analogy4 ,for maps presuppose that a land is become known and familiar4 ,and life cannot be foreknown and charted1 if life it is to be1 as every life ought to be1 a great adventure into the unknown rather than the acceptance of a programme1 a hazard of the spirit rather than a body of prescriptions and ordinances4 ,we are to fare forth upon the seas of life1--without chart4 ,but some of us attempt to sail the sea rudderless1 helmless1 starless4 ,men and women embark upon life without ever having given thought to the storms that beset1 to the rocks that threaten1 to the unknown perils that may lie before4 ,and then it is wondered why many fail to make port1 why the ships of life frequently founder upon the high seas4 ,the wonder ought rather to be that so many enter triumphantly into the harbors of eternity1 seeing how rarely men map out life in advance1 seeing how grudging is the time spent upon preparation1 seeing how seldom men diligently and consciously prepare to meet those difficulties and burdens and problems which adequate preparedness for life alone can fit the soul to face4 ,let not life be mapped out so definitely for you1 so accurately and systematically that no room will be left for the play of your own will and the determinations of your own spirit4 ,i would almost rather have every map of life flung away than have life so mapped out as to leave youth no freedom of choice1 as to fail to spur men on to face the great adventure1 to be capable of daring to front whatsoever life may offer4 ,not very long ago1 ,i inquired of friends1 whose little lad is a pupil of one of the so-called best schools in the land1 when they had applied for his admittance1 and they answered1 8,before he was born40 ,it occurred to me to inquire what dire thing would have happened in the event of the lad having proved upon birth to be a little lass1 but the comforting assurance was at once given me that such contingency1 not to say calamity1 had been guarded against1 in a sense1 through applying for admittance to a girls' school in the event of the lad being born a lass4 ,it seemed to me then as it does now an admirable thing to make such comprehensive provision for a child's education as to gain for it in advance of birth admittance into two schools1 irrespective of sex4 ,but1 without resting too heavily upon this illustration1 is it not possible to prepare another for life so definitely as to deny to youth the privilege of willing1 choosing1 venturing1 daring--even losing8 ,it were almost better that a youth go without the problematic advantages of school discipline than have his school and college and university career chosen and marked out for him rigidly and inflexibly4 ,what greater wrong can ,i do my child than to withhold from him the freedom of choice1 than so to cabin and confine his spirit that he must needs beat his wings in the intense inane without knowing the atmosphere that magnifies freedom and liberates the soul8 ,guide if you will the life of youth1 but beware of the danger of maiming and crippling life through so definitely and completely mapping it out as to deny the soul of youth the peril of adventure1 the joy of combat1 the glory of hopeless daring4 ,life must mean pioneering1 not making one's way1 but breaking a way1 clearing a path of life for one's self4 ,it is the glory of life1--and there is no glory like unto it1--to face the task of moral and intellectual pioneering4 ,there is danger lest in our time there pass out of the life of men one of the most precious of things1 that pioneering spirit that comes to the man who after he has fared forth1 braved every danger1 stood every peril at bay1 declares in the word of the poet3 8,anybody might have heard it ,but ,god's whisper came to me40 ,the whisper of ,god comes to every man or to every man it may come4 ,the opportunity for the performance of the task of moral or spiritual pioneering is denied to no man4 ,americas of the spirit remain to be discovered within the life of every one of us4 ,what man or woman who may read this will affirm that there has never come into his life a revelation the gleam of which enables him to see that he is free to reach a great decision1 that his spirit may dare a great refusal1 that his soul may utter a great affirmation8 ,the great moment of life is that in which a man is revealed unto himself1 in which his soul is laid bare1 in which it comes to him with the force of a revelation1--mine is the power to will and to determine the content of my life1 though if ,i am to will ,i must dare to be myself1 ,i must reach the decision1 ,i must will1 ,i must be free4 ,and the freedom of youth means freedom to be one's self1 to be a law unto one's self1 not to be one's self in lawlessness4 ,choose ye this day whom ye will serve1--remembering that the responsibility of decision rests with you and that1 in the despite of all the lives that have been lived and all the maps that have been drawn and all the plans that have been sketched and all the precedents that have been set1 you must live your own life1 and1 if it be not your own life1 it is not life at all4 ,cherish the counsels of loved ones but remember that neither mother nor father1 uncle nor cousin nor any kinsman or kinswoman whosoever can choose whom you are to serve4 ,you cannot serve ,god unless yours be the choice4 ,young men and women require to be warned against a thousand and one influences ever lurking near at hand to deter youth from the hazard of the spirit's pioneering4 ,despise the counsels of the over-wise and over-mature1 the sum of whose low wisdom is that a man can make no graver mistake in life than to wander from the paths which all men else have pursued4 ,the fear of seeming unusual obsesses the soul of too many of us4 ,not a few men and women would rather be wrong than seem different4 ,difference1 variance1 distinctiveness are not ends in themselves1 but may become and ofttimes are the means that must be used by him who is not fearful of moral distinction4 ,outward differentiation is nothing1 but inward distinction is everything1--is the counsel ,i ever urge upon my fellow-,jews4 ,we are not to seem different for the sake of seeming1 but we are to dare to seem to be different in order to be distinguished1 in order to achieve spiritual outstandingness4 ,when nice and refined and timid people say to you1 8,remember to be like everybody else1 don't attempt anything new1 don't run the risk of seeming peculiar1 don't dream of venturing upon novel courses whether in things great or small10 remember that there is a possible invasion of the soul's integrity that no man need endure4 ,to the counsels of the timorous fling back the command to the brave3 8,always do what you are afraid to do40 ,when men seek to affright you by their counsels of prudence1 remind them of the rule of one of the knightliest of ,americans1 the founder of ,hampton ,institute1 who laid upon one youth's soul the burden3 8doing what can't be done is the glory of living40 ,and when men seek to degrade you to the level of their own base timidity1 bid them to remember the courage and nobleness that were in the act of ,higginson in leading a negro regiment touching which he said3 8,we all fought1 for instance1 with ropes around our necks1 the ,confederate authorities having denied to officers of colored regiments the usual privileges if taken prisoners and having required them to be treated as felons40 ,pioneering1 moreover1 presupposes unrest1 discontent1 just as it should4 ,i am not fearful for the youth whose soul is in a state of unrest1 the youth who has soaring ideals and knows not whether life is even worth living4 ,if that be his problem it is enough for him to know1 paraphrasing the word of the ,jewish fathers1 that whether or not life is worth living we must live as if it were and we must make life fuller of worth4 ,are you dissatisfied1 are you discontented1 so much the better for you4 ,hearing from the mother of ,james ,russell ,lowell of his general discontent with the conditions of society1 ,emerson wrote to her1 8,i hope he will never get over it40 ,better the nobly discontented than the ignobly content4 ,did not ,john ,stuart ,mill say that pigs are always satisfied and men are always dissatisfied4 ,but let your discontent and dissatisfaction be not with the world but with yourself1 knowing that if it be noble it shall lift you up4 ,grave consequences attend the too definite mapping out of life's programme4 ,men's passion for and faith in the profession of soldiering rest upon youth's yearning for adventure4 ,and if1 perchance1 to-day great multitudes of men are yearning to take up arms1 it is not because they would destroy an enemy1 but because they would obliterate the emptiness of their own lives1 because they are in revolt against the absence in normal life to-day of the pioneering opportunity4 ,it is this lack of stimulus or impulse in the direction of pioneering which makes for poor1 mean1 low substitutes in the realm of adventure4 ,the low gang takes the place of high comradeship1 the debasing fling becomes a substitute for ennobling adventure4 ,the passion for glamour and glare1 as disclosed in the craze for the motion picture1 is only another expression of the thwarted sense of adventure which the soul of youth dare not be denied4 ,seeing that the gang spirit is nothing more than a crude1 imperfect1 at worst sinful1 expression of youth's passion for togetherness1 what needs to be done is to offer youth an opportunity for the expression of the deep yearning for fraternalism4 ,do young men imagine that they must have their fling8 ,is it not because life as lived is often so flat and stale and unprofitable that the fling of the body is substituted for the adventure of the spirit1 that1 failing to grasp hold of the eternal realities and verities1 men set out to magnify the passing and perishable8 ,when everything big is shut out of life it is not to be wondered at that life becomes full of meanness and littleness and unworthiness4 ,give yourself to something great1 enroll under the banner of a high cause1 choose as your own some standard of self-sacrifice1 attach yourself to a movement that makes not for your own gain but for the welfare of men1 and you will have come upon a richly satisfying as well as engrossing adventure4 ,either your spirit will greatly and bravely1 nobly and self-forgettingly adventure1 or you will be in danger of yielding to the dominance of your appetites1 you will be in peril of being overcome by your masterful passions4 ,dare to give every power of your life to the furtherance of a mighty cause4 ,let your spirit come under the dominance of a high and exalting enthusiasm4 ,so will you gain the mastery over yourself1 not as a matter of prudence1 not as a matter of caution1 not as a matter of timidity1 not as a matter of duty4 ,let something so high and noble come into your life that it shall be expulsive of everything low and mean4 ,the men one honors most1 the men one has reason to cherish most highly1 are those into whose lives something so lofty and commanding has come as to have left no room for the mean and petty4 ,having given themselves to the furtherance of a high and exalted ideal1 life leaves no place for the mean4 ,the selfish and the unworthy retreats with the precipitancy of the coward before the imperiousness of the noble impulse1 the divine aim4 ,and to their honor be it said1 young men and women will rise to the highest level when it invites or challenges4 ,there is in the heart of youth a limitless capacity for ardent devotion to causes of nobleness if but it be evoked and guided4 ,and youth1 too1 understands how noble the venturesome deed may be even when utterly futile1 how sublime in essence even when broken and foredoomed4 ,but men cannot finely pioneer nor nobly adventure until after they have learned certain lessons in life4 ,men must learn to be self-reveringly independent1 which implies not the aloofness of solitude but the aloneness when necessary of moral and spiritual self-reliance4 ,man must learn to live his own life4 ,there is no greater danger in our time than that a man shall submit to the tyranny of the crowd4 ,a man need not be remote from nor yet alien to the world and yet he may live his own life and live within himself4 ,we suffer ourselves to come under the domination of mob-feeling and mob-thinking1 such as it is1 because we have not learned the art of shutting ourselves away at times from the world4 ,we seem never to dare to be alone because1 though we know it not1 we would fain avoid facing life's problems4 ,we must understand1 too1 that1 if the problems of our own life are to be met and solved1 these things cannot be done vicariously4 ,not parents nor teachers nor ministers can solve those pressing problems of our inner life with which a man can cope effectively only amid the solitude of his inmost life4 ,until you have learned the art of separating yourself for some time in every day from the multitude1 you will not learn how to think out and think through life's problems4 ,you will not even know that there are problems to be resolved4 ,but while life is to be lived in the spirit of self-reverence and self-reliance1 life's great questions cannot be faced aright unless they be faced selflessly4 ,life is not to be egocentric but heterocentric4 ,the question that a man must put is not what is he going to get out of life1 how can he get the most out of life1 but how can he put the most and the best into life4 ,life is not to be interpreted in terms of self1 of individual gain1 of personal advantage4 ,if it be possible to differentiate between two classes in the world1 these classes are respectively made up of the men who read life in the language of privilege and advantage and the men who interpret life in the terms of duty and obligation and responsibility4 ,the selfless are the only beings who know how to live1 who have learned and mastered the art of life4 ,it is always possible to draw the distinction between the man who lives for himself1 for what he can get out of life1 for the enhancement of his own fame1 for the enlargement of his own power1 and the man who puts himself second1 who lives for the good of others1 who lives for the good1 who is capable of denying self4 ,the noblest of men and women are they who prescribe life to self in terms of duty to the world4 ,i venture to say to youth this day that there are two great needs in the life of youth1 if life is to be truly and finely faced4 ,have an ideal1 something to live by1 and live for that ideal1 wholly1 steadfastly1 unwaveringly4 ,many men are willing to cherish an ideal1 to behold a vision1 to catch a gleam1 but they do not seem to understand that ideals are not to be had cheaply1 that a vision is not to be gained for the asking4 ,one comes upon men and women in every walk of life entirely ready to pursue an ideal1 but the pursuit must impose no difficulty1 must involve no sacrifice4 ,these are the idealists who falter not until sacrifice be demanded of them1 and then their ideal is suffered to pass as if the ideal were nothing more than a fair-weather friend rather than a refuge in time of trouble1 a bulwark during hours of trial and amid the storms of temptation4 ,nor are ideals reserved for the great and outstanding in life4 ,every one of us has a goal1 and you are what your goal is4 ,your life will ultimately define itself in the terms of your ideal4 ,let your ideal be high and it will exalt you4 ,suffer your ideal to be low and it will be sure to debase you4 ,you are your goal3 your ideal is you4 ,life often breaks down here1 in one of these two critical places1 in the matter of willing highly and of having holily4 ,some men have neither vision of goal nor choice of way4 ,some men have the vision but stumble on the way1--the men who think the goal more important than the way1 forgetting that the way is the goal4 ,and so many falter and fumble1 forgetting that life's most important choice is as truly of a path as of the goal1 that the way that leads thither is of the essence of the dream and the triumph4 ,what thou wouldst have highly thou must have holily4 ,we will to have high things1 but we are not prepared to achieve them holily1 as if the manner of the quest were less holy than the matter of the goal4 ,who does not know of men in business who aim to secure a competence and are resolved to put by the ways that are sharp and mean1 after a fortune has been secured8 ,men vainly imagine that after they have amassed much they will neutralize the evil they have done by doing much good1 but in the meantime they have done evil to themselves and are no longer free to live by the ideal4 ,giving themselves unholily to the quest of the high1 they have become transformed and debased into something mean and strange4 ,one knows of men in the ministry to whom is given the putatively wise counsel to be discreetly cautious and evasively silent until the time comes for the occupancy of a great pulpit1 when1 as it is basely said1 a man can afford to speak out of his soul4 ,but when the great pulpit prize is won1 the gleam1 alas1 is gone1 the vision lies shattered4 ,the man has been corrupted and his soul corroded and he who was willing for a time to be silent in the hope that some day1 through the methods of silence1 he might achieve the right of speaking out more bravely1 has in the meantime become a dumb dog who has lost the power as well as the will to utter himself in fashion brave and unafraid4 ,seemingly good men1 outwardly decent men enter into political life and imagine that they must for a time strike hands with corruption until the hour will come when they shall be able to smite corruption with their own fists4 ,they palter and they falter1 whispering sorrowfully1 8,truly it is regrettable1 but one must do these things40 ,one distinguished statesman in ,american life declared to a friend many years ago that there are times when a man must eat a peck of dirt in order to gain high office4 ,he gained the office1 he ate his peck1 and the tragedy is that it is not only become the steady article of his diet1 but he loves it and he would not live without it1 that it is become of the very essence of his being4 ,in other words1 a man cannot wallow through the mire to the skies4 ,no man can have two standards1 one to be followed until he be forty or fifty1 and then suddenly put away4 ,no man can divest himself of the lower ideal which he has adopted as a temporary expedient1 because in the meantime it has come to have the mastery over his soul4 ,putting aside the great choice1 the hour comes when a man finds himself incapable of the great refusal and the standard to which he gave his temporary adherence1 to be abandoned in the years of opulence and safety1 becomes his despotic and inescapable master4 ,it is no more possible to have two standards in the world of the spirit than it is possible to prescribe two different moral standards for men and women4 ,unity must be sought and achieved at the outset1 not a lowered standard in the beginning and a higher standard in the end4 ,the habit of the soul cannot be altered at will4 ,once to every man and not a thousand times comes the moment to decide1 and the earlier decision will in part1 if not in whole1 be determinative of every later choice4 ,and if1 young men and women1 there were nothing else for which to prepare1 there is the future1 there is the holy calling of parenthood to be pursued by most of you4 ,have ,i not the right to appeal to young men and women to-day to remember how much or how little they can make of their own lives1 and may we not base such appeal upon the truth that they are to be the makers and the molders of the morrow2 that unless their lips and lives proclaim the voice of ,god in the soul of man1 there will follow a little-souled and mean-hearted generation instead of a race of great-hearted and noble-souled men and women4 ,a beautiful passage in an allegory recently presented upon the stage tells of the song of unborn souls1 which are dreaming of the parenthood to be their lot upon earth and looking forward with heavenly joy to the supreme felicity and benediction of parenthood4 ,the most important duty of youth is to prepare with consciousness and consecration for life's highest duty1--the duty of parenthood4 ,shall that future be polluted1 shall that heritage be befouled8 ,in reminding young men and women as ,i do that they are the trustees of the morrow1 that they hold in their keeping the destiny of all the future1 ,i am tempted to ask a question4 ,what if ,i were to bring a little child before you1 some beautiful child of a year or two1 and what if some man sitting in this company were to come hither and for some unknown reason strike that child3 would it not be with difficulty that we could restrain ourselves from doing violence to such a creature8 ,what of the men and women committing a crime infinitely more hurtful1 who would not strike a little child1 but who1 none the less1 are ready to doom unborn generations to a heritage of evil1 of hurt1 of shame8 ,what young man or woman will not think upon that8 ,a further word should be spoken to young women who in every generation are standard-bearers1 and not only standard-bearers but standard-lifters4 ,i know it to be true that ofttimes women conform to the lower standards which men impose upon them4 ,yet is it true that women may be the makers of standards if they will1 and that1 if they consent to the lowering of the standards1 men will readily and1 alas1 eagerly lapse to the lower levels4 ,will not young women understand that1 if they suffer standards to be lowered1 if they for any reason yield to the temptation to be their poorer1 unworthier selves in the sight of men1 then will they corrupt men1 then will they in very truth have broken faith with the moral order which has vested womanhood with the supreme privilege of exalting standards and by the exalting of standards exalting men4 ,i have said nothing up to this time about the place of ,god in the life of youth4 ,i never feel it my duty to urge you to believe in ,god as if faith in ,god1 as if trust in ,god1 as if the acceptance of ,god were a task to be superimposed rather than a privilege to be coveted4 ,to young men and women ,i would say that the one thing in the world they may not omit to do is to leave room for ,god in their lives4 ,but you cannot leave room for ,god if your life be choked and clogged with things1 and things1 and things4 ,leave a place in your life for the spirit of ,god and ,god will find his way into your life and lead you to the making of a life divine4 ,reviewing what has gone before1 the great thing in life is to map it out in youth4 ,not that one is to refrain from venturing upon the uncharted sea but that1 howsoever daringly one is ready to fare forth upon the seas1 one may not forget the guidance of the stars4 ,it is a great thing to venture upon the imperiling seas of life without the assurance of safety and reward for one's plans and toils4 ,it is a greater thing so to fare forth as to come inevitably under the direction of the fixed stars in the heavens of the spirit divine4 ,upon a stained window in the dwelling of a noble friend ,i came upon some lines which ,i commend to the soul of youth everywhere3 8,climb high ,climb far ,your goal the sky ,your aim the star40 ,,ii ,,maturity3 ,,how ,,to ,,serve ,,and ,,achieve ,maturity1 or the middle period of life1 is in a sense the largest part of life1 and is not to be viewed merely as the period after youth and before old age4 ,it is relative only as all time is relative1 but it is absolute1 too4 ,in truth1 it is the time of that self-dependence which comes with the consciousness of power in maturity4 ,it is the very body and substance of life and least relative1--for youth is its foreshadowing and old age the shadow which it casts behind4 ,middle age is not a link between youth and old age1 but that period of life to which youth is an approach1--from which old age is an exit4 ,comparing life to a bridge1 youth and old age might be likened to the piers which must be builded1 but the linking together of the piers1 the stretching of the cables over which the larger part of life's pilgrimage must be made is the task of life's middle period4 ,life is so constituted that it were almost within the limits of reasonableness to urge that life need not pass out of the middle stage into old age4 ,loath though one be to enter upon maturity1 it need never be left behind in return for age if it be entered upon in the spirit of preparedness4 ,middle age is hard and bitter if youth have been misspent1 if youth have not been the stage of conscious preparation for life4 ,certain rules have been laid down for the governance of youth and the question may be asked whether these are pertinent to the needs and tasks of middle age1--namely the law that one must have an ideal by which to live1 and that one must not merely live by it but up to it4 ,as for the rules which are to be binding upon the middle period of life1 who shall venture to prescribe them1 save that certain things are obviously true1--that middle age shall continue that which youth initiates1 and that there shall be no sharp frontier dividing youth from that which comes after4 ,for middle age is not so much a part of life as it is life1 and life absolute4 ,middle age is but a part of the same life-long journey which in its early stages is youth1 which culminates in age4 ,and yet in a sense a different type of rules and ordinances is applicable to every one of the three great periods of life4 ,for life is not a journey1 even and unvarying1 over a wide plain4 ,life may best be likened to the ascent of a mountain and in turn the descent from its summit1 and the laws that govern life must be variously modified in order to meet the needs of the different periods along the journey4 ,in the early stages1 during the hours of the ascent1 the imperative thing is that a man shall not over-tax his strength1 that he shall not overstrain his powers in the initial stages of the journey1 that he shall not attempt too much1 that he shall not travel at too wearying a pace4 ,as man nears the summit of the mountain1 it becomes needful for him to conform to other rules4 ,he must not lose the stride1 he must know how to go on1 he must climb and climb without succumbing to the heat of the day4 ,once the descent is begun1 yet other rules apply1 if one is with safety to reach the end of the long journey4 ,the glory of the morning no longer upbears him1 the splendor of the noonday sun no longer maintains his strength4 ,but as he leaves youth's vigor and the power of maturity behind him1 the glow of the passing day may irradiate his vision and reveal to him the distant horizon4 ,middle age seems too often a painful reluctance to leave youth behind and to be a more painful hesitancy in the matter of facing the oncoming of age4 ,unhappily for itself1 middle age oft combines the childishness of immaturity with the senescence of post-maturity so that it lacks alike the charm of youth and the grace of age4 ,old age that is not worthy of reverence is contemptible4 ,not less worthy of contempt is middle age1 if it have brought from youth nothing save youth's foibles and frailties4 ,we not unseldom see--and it is always a pitiful spectacle1--men and women whose bark of life is unballasted by the poise that comes with strength and unsteadied by the serenity which ought to be the mark of the maturer period4 ,while men speak of the dignity of old age1 it is in truth the middle age which is in need of dignity1 which alas it too often lacks4 ,men frequently refer to the emptiness and the barrenness of old age1 when it is oftenest middle age that is empty and meaningless1 for it is the time when life's emptiness is disclosed4 ,it is in middle age that men are made to face the bitter truth that theirs is not to achieve and to serve because they have not set up any standards worthy of the name1 because their goal1 such as it is1 is too immediately accessible1 and they cannot serve because self1 having been their very deity1 has not suffered them to will to serve or to learn how to serve4 ,the temptation of middle age is to yield to the spirit of disenchantment1 though verily that is oft-times called disenchantment which means nothing more than the absence of enchantments4 ,the temptation of middle age is not so much to give up ideals as to realize that one is without them4 ,then men mistake their poor plans and plottings1 their puny purposes for ideals and wonder why they have lost that which in truth they never had4 ,men rarely lose ideals4 ,poor1 imperfect substitutes for ideals are found out and find out their owners1--if so they may be named4 ,men are not to fear losing ideals in middle age4 ,they are to fear not having them in youth so that they cannot hold them throughout life4 ,middle age depends upon youth1 and its disillusionments are due chiefly to the absence of illusions in the time of youth4 ,in middle and in old age men suddenly discover that they cannot reap what in youth they have failed to sow4 ,that middle age finds the ideals of youth unsatisfying and even unengrossing1 indicts only youth and not itself1 shows that the map of life1 if drawn at all and as drawn in youth1 was not ample and generous enough to have proved sufficing for a lifetime4 ,assuming that middle age is less joyous than youth1 it enjoys one supreme satisfaction1 or rather reaps one supreme compensation1 that of the consciousness of two powers1 two of life's sovereign powers1 the power to achieve and the power to serve4 ,if youth initiates1 middle age most achieves and best serves1--most achieves because it is a time of fullness of intellectual strength and firmness of moral will2 best serves because the stains of self have been or ought to have been burnt out and there is left the capacity of selfless enlistment under banners unrelated to personal gain or private advantage4 ,the middle age that men find bare and unsatisfying is in truth that to them who have not mastered the two arts of life1 achieving and serving4 ,certain mistakes are not uncommon in respect of the interpretation of middle age1 for example1 that it is not the period of high initiative4 ,because things are not initiated with dash and flare1 it is assumed that middle age undertakes nothing4 ,on the contrary1 it is then and perhaps only then that things are begun and achieved for their own sake1 that things are really undertaken in the consciousness of strength and with a capacity for achievement4 ,moreover1 while little can be carried into and beyond middle age that is not initiated in youth1 the soul of man has not in the middle period forfeited or abandoned the power of self-correction and self-redemption4 ,it may not be easy1 neither is it impossible4 ,perhaps the supreme rule for middle age may be phrased in the fewest of words1--don't stop growing6 ,physical and intellectual maturity are not interchangeable terms4 ,the truth is that men almost consciously cease to grow1 and even will not to grow at thirty-five and forty and forty-five and then proceed to wonder why life is so unsatisfying4 ,let men but remember that there is no such thing as maturity in life1--if maturity mean the cessation of growth1--for maturity were followed by post-maturity1 which is over-ripeness4 ,men need never cease to grow and mature4 ,men will either grow up or go down4 ,the great and satisfying lives are those of men and women who grow on and go on until they are cut down4 ,when ,freeman died1 he asked that on his gravestone be carved the words1 8,he died learning40 ,he who grows and learns dies not4 ,continue1 as long as thou wouldst grow1 to learn and reason and purpose1 nor yet imagine that life is done when youth is ended4 ,nor let the middle-aged forget that going on is not the only possibility4 ,even in middle age a man may reserve for himself freedom1 freedom of choice1 freedom to revise life's foundations1 freedom to begin anew if so be error have been made4 ,above all1 middle age must not lose its admirations1 its reverences1 its enthusiasms4 ,the edge of enthusiasm may be dulled with the passing of the years1--but the body and substance of one's admirations need not be diminished1 and by our admirations we live4 ,anatole ,france1 speaking of the old campaigners of the ,reserve1 uses this finely stimulating word with regard to them1--8they unite the elasticity of youth with the staunchness of maturity40 ,there is another and an older way of describing the characteristic quality of middle age1 which must combine 8the wisdom of age and the heart of youth40 ,,iii ,,age3 ,,how ,,not ,,to ,,grow ,,old 8,but why1 you ask me1 should this tale be told ,to men grown old1 or who are growing old8 ,it is too late6 ,ah1 nothing is too late ,till the tired heart shall cease to palpitate4 99 99 99 99 99 ,what1 then8 ,shall we sit idly down and say ,the night hath come2 it is no longer day8 ,the night hath not yet come2 we are not quite ,cut off from labor by the failing light2 ,something remains for us to do or dare2 ,even the oldest tree some fruit may bear4 99 99 99 99 99 ,for age is opportunity no less ,than youth itself1 though in another dress1 ,and as the evening twilight fades away ,the sky is filled with stars1 invisible by day40 --,,longfellow3 ,morituri ,salutamus4 ,old age depends largely upon the attitude of men toward the whole of life4 ,old age is not a joke nor a bore nor a trial nor a calamity1 though it may be any one of these as all of life may be4 ,but what needs to be stressed is that old age has no content in itself apart from the whole of life4 ,old age may be as nothing else a foretaste of the kingdom of heaven where faith and hope may meet and love crown all4 ,but little can come to old age that was not in and throughout life4 ,alas for the old age of the self-centered and self-serving6 ,if life have built walls that shut out1 these cannot be razed by age1 which will forever have made itself captive4 ,the crown of old age is a term that trips lightly from our tongues4 ,are we not in danger of forgetting that there must be something to crown8 ,for in old age inheres no magic to redeem and transfigures all that has gone before4 ,old age purges the precious metal of life's substance of its debasing dross1 but the precious substance must be there to be purged4 ,age1 like happiness1 is neither to be sought nor evaded4 ,it is a by-product of life rather than life's end4 ,not the aim nor goal of life1 but the way of life must it be4 ,in the matter of reverencing old age1 we rest historically upon the firmest ,jewish foundation4 ,for the ,jew as no other man before or after him taught the world how to magnify childhood and to glorify old age1--to rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of the old man4 ,and this revering solicitude for the aged is still one of the marks of ,jewish life4 ,jewish teaching has urged and ,jewish practice has confirmed the truth that blessing rests upon that home in which the aged have found shelter4 ,indeed1 one is almost disposed to hold that there is a possibility of overdoing reverence for old age as old age1 of becoming indiscriminating in the honor which one metes out to the hoary head4 ,if the people of ,israel have erred in any part with respect to old age1 they have revered the aged head too much irrespective of the head and the man4 ,i would not if ,i could break with that fine tradition1 but1 sometimes1 it were well to ask whether old age is to be respected as a virtue in itself1 whether length of days should be regarded as a merit apart from what has gone before4 ,old age is judged compassionately on the principle that nothing but the good should be spoken touching the dead or the nearly dead4 ,one is sometimes moved to believe that if the aged are unhappy it is because age brings with it not only opportunity for quiet meditation and serene retrospect1 but the necessity of thinking about the great issues of life4 ,and many of us have never learned how to think4 ,we have put off the evil day of taking thought upon life so that1 when it at last comes1 its imminence appalls4 ,men and women put off their questions and their problems to the end of life and when the end is nearly come1 they lack the strength and will to think them through4 ,the need of solutions is then cruelly pressed upon unpracticed and undisciplined minds4 ,though ,i ask the question1 how to grow old and how not to grow old1 are we not1 if we will be frank1 more interested in the question how not to grow old than how to grow old8 ,in the question1 pressing a little farther1 how to seem not to grow old rather than how not grow old8 ,seeming not to grow old may be attained by artificial means4 ,not to grow old may be achieved by inward grace alone4 ,need it be said that no one is ever deceived by external methods of averting age1 nor is any one profited or helped save perhaps the chemist and the dye-maker1 save the babblers and praters of new substitutes for old faiths8 ,whosoever thinks of old age aright1 whosoever has fitted himself for the dignity of the burden of many days will resort neither to renewing cosmetics nor novel cults as a refuge from old age4 ,men speak of the penalties of old age and penalties there are1 but what of its rewards1 rich and abundant and wondrous1 richer indeed in most cases than its desert8 ,the old1 because they are old1 are treated for the most part as if they were travelers returning richly laden with stores of varied treasures from a voyage over remotest seas to some strange and wondrous spot4 ,old age in itself is no more a reward than a penalty4 ,and yet what rewards1 paraphrasing ,shakespeare1 accompany old age1 and how fitting that these rewards1 friendship-bearing1 honor-bringing1 should wait upon what might elsewise be life's melancholy end6 ,the truth is that old age is not a period of rewards nor penalties in themselves4 ,it is a time of duties1 as every period offers life's cup with duties brimming o'er4 ,duties there are1--but there are privileges beyond estimate4 ,and the privilege of privileges is to offer an example to others in all ways and most of all in the way of facing life with serenity4 ,finer far for old age to claim its duties than to enjoy its privileges for the old ought to shun being pitied as weak and seek rather to be admired as strong and honored as serene4 ,when old age has the grace of exalting duty and subordinating privilege1 it ceases to be the period of mute resignation4 ,from one point of view1 it is the age of resignation1 for one wittingly resigns in part what death is wholly to take away1 but1 be it made clear1 resignation is not inaction1 renunciation is not willlessly surrendering torpor4 ,these things imply will1 action1 choice1 not merely an awaiting of the end without murmur or complaint4 ,for old age waits not but wills2 old age surrenders not but whilst life is renders return for life4 ,while different types of laws seem to obtain for youth1 maturity and old age1 these yet are one and one spirit seems to pervade and dominate all4 ,let youth hold high its aim and pursue high aims through holy means4 ,let maturity serve and achieve and above all achieve only that it may serve with unimpaired admiration and undimmed ideals4 ,and let old age be nobly wise and unafraid and unselfish to the end6 ,much1 if not everything1 of the content of old age depends on the things for which one cares4 ,if one care for the things that cannot survive youth or middle age1 whose value is inevitably lessened with the flight of years1 then old age must become barren and empty4 ,whether your old age is to be void and meaningless depends almost wholly not upon what you have and care for at seventy or eighty1 but what it was you sought to have at twenty1 what you cared for at thirty1 what you cherished at forty4 ,certain things may be harmless1 even admirable in themselves1 and yet are destined to be woefully disappointing if they are suffered to become the pursuits of a lifetime and men give themselves to things for which they cannot care when the years have multiplied4 ,myopia may interfere with one's zest for looking upon motion pictures1 limbs may become too rheumatic for dancing1 tragic though this may sound1 the hazard of games of chance may lose its fascination1 even money-making1 the accumulation of things1 may pall or become impossible4 ,but certain things there are that can never grow stale nor wearying nor seem unprofitable4 ,upon these let men fix their vision and their aim1 the pleasures of the mind1 the tasks of the spirit1 the possibilities of serving4 ,it is almost life's greatest danger that life will be lived with care for things interest in which cannot survive youth and middle age4 ,what if a man were so to train himself physically that he could run and do nothing else1 so that after the period of running had passed1 he could not walk6 ,would not such modus vivendi seem unwise and sadly blundering8 ,would you avoid growing old8 ,do you will even to seem not to grow old8 ,then have a vision of life and amid a multiplicity of things have and hold1 cherish and pursue an ideal4 ,to the man of ideals1 to the man who in other words lives1 age comes not4 ,age cannot touch nor wither nor blast the life pervaded and smitten through by ideals4 ,would you grow old1 or rather would you not grow old1 then live1 and live by the stars4 ,such are the lives of the unaging4 ,in order not to grow old1 ,i say again1 grow on in faith and hopefulness1 in vision and serviceableness4 ,being without these things1 some men cannot grow old1 they are old4 ,unhappily for them1 they were born old1 as other men1 whatever be the number of their years1 die young4 ,having these things1 age cannot ravage the spirit4 ,such men and women are age-proof1 their heads may be silver white1 their frames bowed1 their limbs palsied1 but age they know not1--the men ,i have in mind1 such men as that great physician who1 after sixty years and more of unwearied and unrivaled service1 is still an impassioned pleader for the right of the child1 of the merest1 puniest babe4 ,who will dare say that he is aged1 who at fourscore and more spends himself utterly in the service of the least of these8 ,i am thinking of yet another friend of fourscore and more1 whose life is nobly dedicated to the furtherance of amity between faith and faith1 who serves all men as brothers1 who proves that he is a ,christian by the love he bears the ,jew4 ,and ,i am thinking of yet another man who likewise has lived for fourscore years1 perhaps the foremost educator of our generation1 a publicist of matchless felicity in utterance and conduct alike1 a man who at eighty and more steps into the arena with all the power and eagerness of youth in order to take up arms on behalf of another great though much wronged servant of the nation4 ,it was once said of ,theodore ,parker that he gave himself unreservedly and with abandon to whatever truth1 duty1 love1 the three sublime voices of ,god1--the real trinity in our souls1--commanded4 ,truth1 duty1 love6 ,have you tried these things8 ,have you dared to live by them and for them1 by and for any one of them8 ,does not this word bear out what was recently said by a great ,american physician about a noble social worker1--that individual1 who has no object in life1 who simply works day by day1 with the idea that he is making a dollar and is going to use the dollar for his own comfort1 cannot have a very peaceful mind4 ,but if one has an object in life1 to attain certain things which will be helpful to others1 and whose day is filled with that sort of work1 that individual deserves1--and other things being equal1--will have an old age4 ,truth1 duty1 love1--obey their command and when you do you shall find age a fiction and life alone a reality4 ,what if old age be without teeth and eyes if it be not without hope and faith and fadeless memories6 8,to suffer and endure1 ,to keep the spirit pure-- ,the fortress and abode of holy ,truth-- ,to serve eternal things ,whate'er the issue brings ,this is not broken ,age1 but ageless ,youth40 ,if then life be centered on self1 old age may rest in the certitude of disappointment and disillusion4 ,but if self be centered on life1 then may come what ,morley described1 touching ,edmund ,burke1 as 8an unrebellious temper and hopes undimmed for mankind40 ,twofold must be the hope of man1--for a future for self and for the future for all4 ,and when the soul is so freighted with hopes1 then shall it be said of a man as it was said of the great poet3 8,he was one of those on the lookout for every new idea and for every old idea with a new application1 which may tend to meet the growing requirements of society2 one of those who are like men standing on a watch-tower to whom others apply and say1 not #8,what of the night8' but #8,what of the morning and of the coming day8'0 ,my one word of counsel is1--let life not be centered on self1 for to live for self is to invite cruel disaster in old age4 ,the saddest1 in truth the most tragic1 lives ,i know are those of old men and women who have nothing to live for because they have lived for self and self alone1--and self is nothing4 ,their lives are piteously empty4 ,for the restlessness and excitement of youth may hide this truth1 but age1 like death1 is a revealer4 ,and there are many types of selfishness4 ,i speak of two which must suffice4 ,there are those who live for self1--for selfissimus1 giving not the utmost for the highest but all for the nighest1--self1 self1 self1 self's pleasure and profit and power and vantage and fame4 ,these are the most crude and obvious types of the selfful1 who shall pay the penalty of their folly and their moral disease4 ,but1 though it be said to your dismay1 there are other types of selfishness1 though less obvious1--the selfishness of those who project self into and magnify self in family relationship4 ,for there are those who simply extend the horizon of self enough to include other forms of self1 one's own1 one's nearest1 one's flesh and blood4 ,and here1 too1 disillusion is bound to come and ought to come1 for one's own cannot and ought not to fill one's life forever4 ,one might well excuse our mothers and fathers for giving their thought and attention to their own1 for these were many and life was hard and life's struggle ofttimes bitter4 ,but for the fewest is such excuse valid now1--if ever it was valid--especially seeing that we concentrate upon the giving to others of things rather than upon helping others to their highest and best4 ,in truth1 people concentrate upon self1 upon their own interests and wishes1 and these things pass and little or nothing is left in life save self4 ,live for yourself1 and you live two years in one2 live in the life of others1 and you divide your years with another4 ,is not all this a paraphrase of what ,emerson has said better than any other8 ,he who loves is in no condition old4 ,not lives and lives for self1 not loves self and self alone1 but he who loves6 ,emerson1 building better perhaps than he knew1 has voiced the deepest truth of the soul4 ,love cannot die and love will not let die nor yet grow old4 ,and yet as a final word1 and more needed than all else1 ,i would say that there is only one way to grow old1 and that too is the only way not to grow old4 ,that way is to know1 to love1 to serve4 8,grow old along with me6 ,the ,best is yet to be1 ,the last of life for which the first was made2 ,our times are in ,his hand ,who saith1 #8,a whole ,i planned1' ,youth shows but half3 ,trust ,god3 see all nor be afraid40