To remain active members of society and continue to do our share of life's work is a matter of vital concern to those of us who are classed as elderly people. Of course it is not always easy to dismiss the thought that we are growing old. But by far too many persons fancy that at sixty, seventy, or eighty, development is held in check because of age, and only little can be accomplished in the physical and mental field of life.

Under normal conditions the rule prevails that there are few insurmountable obstacles to a happy utilization of mind and body during the period of old age. The practical question is not whether we can push the natural age of man to ninety or one hundred years, but whether we can keep our bodies so pure and active, and so preserve the integrity of our mental powers, that between fifty and ninety our place will not be in seclusion, but in some degree, at least, in the full tide of the world's activities.

Julian Hawthorne has a suggestive article in the 35th volume of The Cosmopolitan, entitled "Resist Gravitation," a practical interpretation of which I understand to be this: Keeping one's self in a condition of physical soundness, grasping a large hope of the future, possessing a wholesome self-confidence, and staying in harness in spite of advancing age. Men get the vulgar notion that when they are fifty or sixty they should begin to think themselves old; but in these pages are given many of the rapidly multiplying examples which prove that a man need be no older than he chooses.

In speaking of the philosophy of this matter, Mr. Hawthorne says: "The gist of it is that we should resist gravitation, moral, mental, and physical. Do not let your body sag downward, or your mind or your character. You will notice that all old persons who permit themselves to be old have bodies that are slowly being dragged downward; their thoughts, also, are heavy and slow. These tendencies may be overcome by taking thought about them: sit erect in your chair; when you stand, lift yourself to your full height; when you speak, let your voice possess full volume and energy. Never believe that you are a back number. Read new books (really new ones, not old ones rehashed); associate with lively people; be plucky and take your part. Gravitation, in all planes of existence, is man's enemy if he yield to it, but his best friend if he resist it. Have confidence in the possible integrity of human life, from start to finish, and it will reward you with health, strength, and felicity."

If one wants an encouraging lesson on the subject of staying in harness, he can find it in the life of Professor Theodor Mommsen, who died in Germany in November, 1903. He was one of the greatest of all the historians of Eome, and was also one of the most eminent scholars of his time. In stature he was insignificant, and his frame was surprisingly emaciated, his weight being hardly more than one hundred pounds. His physical condition seemed so frail that one might reasonably suppose that with advancing years Professor Mommsen could not resist the temptation to lay aside the hard work attending the life of a great scholar and rest upon the honors he had already won. But the little old man, whose voice was full of sweetness and his laugh as merry as that of a girl of sixteen, could not so close his life. Had he lived thirty days longer he would have celebrated his eighty-sixth birthday, and in the work of his last year he manifested the energy and mental power of a man in middle life.

To show how Professor Mommsen could pull in harness in his later years, the London Telegraph says that when he was sixty he lost his whole library through fire in his residence at Charlottenburg. Many friends feared that the blow would be too much for him. Not a bit of it ! After a brief space of time he recovered his good spirit, his great energy of character helping him over every obstacle, and more than ever he seemed to embody the words of Goethe: "when a man is old he must do more than when he is young."

Mrs. Hannah B. Humphrey of Warsaw, New York, seems never to have been disturbed by the thought that when she became old she would be decrepit and useless. In 1902, at the age of ninety-five, she was an active clubwoman. She understood the philosophy of life. Emerson says "the high prize of life, the crowning fortune of a man, is to be born with a bias to some pursuit, which finds him in employment and happiness." Mrs. Humphrey secured this high prize of life. When within a few years of being a century old, she was not only busy attending to many household affairs, but in the art of embroidery she thought herself equal to any young woman in Warsaw, and her specimens exhibited at the fairs never failed to take the first premium.

Only a few days ago I read an interesting story of the life of Mr. George Ives of Fredonia, New York. On the day that he was one hundred years old some friends called at his house to congratulate him upon having attained to so great an age. They expected to find him in his home comfortably seated in an easy chair, waiting patiently for the final summons. But he was not there. They were told by the housekeeper that the old gentleman was in the field, following a harrow! Mr. Ives does not believe in the "antique morality" that when a man is seventy years old or over, "it is time for him to lay aside the things of the present life and to prepare his soul for the next." He told his visitors that he could see no reason why he should stop work because he was a hundred years old.

How not to get old in the sense that one must master the inclination to let his mind and body "sag downward," is one of the great prob lems which confront people of advanced years. To win the "high prize of life" is to keep actively employed in some useful occupation to the end. This is not mere sentiment, but a practical matter. There is open to almost all aged persons an opportunity to enjoy a fair degree of health, to possess a good temper, and to engage in some helpful employment, however humble. There is a lot of sense in the saying of a French philosopher that a man should keep at his work as though immortal, even if he should know that his death would come tomorrow. And another moralist struck the keynote of a principle that should control every life-"a man who on a sinking ship does not take his pill at the prescribed moment and wind up his watch, lacks a manly quality."