When Hogarth's years were drawing to a close he executed a picture in which his purpose was to illustrate the end of human life. On the can vas was a shattered bottle, a cracked bell, an unstrung bow, the sign-post of a tavern called "The World's End," falling down, a shipwreck, the horses of Phoebus lying dead in the clouds, the moon in her last quarter, and the world on fire. "One more thing," said Hogarth, "and I have done." He then added to this picture a painter's palette broken. It was the last work he executed. This was Hogarth's view of old age just before his life closed at sixty-seven.

Against this dark picture which represents Hogarth's feeling as to what life was to him, I want to set the hopes, the aspirations, and the faith of Dr. Edward Everett Hale. About ten years ago the Rev. Dr. Henry M. Field, editor of The Evangelist, New York, published in his paper a conversation with Dr. Hale, which ran as follows:

"We began to forecast the time, not far distant, when we should pass into another sphere. This did not dampen the conversation in the least. I asked Dr. Hale, 'Does it cast a shadow over you to think that life is coming to an end V 'Not in the least: for it is not coming to an end; we only pass from one stage to another/ Then said I, 'You have no doubts as to the future life?' 'Not the slightest/ was his reply. I answered, 'I say with all sincerity that though I am nearly seventy-three years of age, I would not be a day younger than I am.' 'Nor 1/ Dr. Hale emphatically said. 'Do you shrink back at the thought of passing out of the known into the unknown V 'On the contrary, I sometimes feel a longing to know what is beyond the veil, and I am eager to see the curtain rise. To such death is but the passing out of the darkness into light.' Death for us every one may be 'swallowed up in victory.'"

This conversation reveals the Christian faith of two great men. Dr. Field is in his eightythird year. He edited The Evangelist for forty-five years, has published many important books, and still puts cheer and mental vigor in his work.

Dr. Hale and Dr. Field are twins in their happy and breezy style of living and working; and they are twins in another sense - they were bora on the same day - in the same year - April third, 1822. Since Dr. Hale wrote The Man Without a Country, forty-two years ago, a little book that made a deep impression on the public mind, he has been a remarkably active man in literary undertakings. The increase of years has not made his work less facile and delightful. He was close to eighty years old when he published his Memories of a Hundred Years, a work of uncommon interest and value. And he could be called an octogenarian when, in collaboration with his children, he wrote New England History in Ballads.

At eighty-two, Dr. Hale was elected chaplain of the United States Senate, and in addition to performing the duties of that office, he keeps his pen busy. He does not propose to abandon intellectual effort before it is absolutely necessary. By judicious means he has guarded himself against the common misfortunes of elderly people. When I asked the doctor for some of the rules which served him best in maintaining his mental and physical vigor in his advanced life, he wrote:

"Live in the open air as much as you can. Let no man think of himself more highly than he ought to think. For this it will be convenient not to think of yourself much at all.

"As you grow old do not go a long time without easily digested food. The centre of all healthy physical life is sleep. Whatever else you do, take care that you sleep well. This means that you do not work the brain in the last six hours of any day."

The spirit of Dr. Hale's life is expressed in his motto, which has many times been repeated around the world:

Look forward and not backward;

Look up and not down;

Look out and not in;

Lend a hand.

He carries with him an extraordinary atmosphere; and from his life can be learned the great lesson of service and hope.