The Prolongation of Life: Optimistic StudiesMetchnikoff, Elie
Science
The Prolongation of Life: Optimistic Studies
Metchnikoff, Elie
Aging; Hygiene; Longevity; Older people -- Social conditions
It must be well understood that I am not here thinking of written
knowledge, set down in treatises and volumes. Rimpau and Burbank went
outside manuals of botany to obtain their knowledge. Besides books,
wide ideas on the practice of life are required to direct aright the
conduct of men. A doctor who has just finished his studies at the
hospital, notwithstanding all his knowledge, is not yet sufficiently
trained to be a good practitioner. He must acquire the habit of
treating patients, and for this years are required. So also is it with
regard to the practical applications of the principles of morality.
The regulation of conduct requires profound knowledge both theoretical
and practical, and men selected to frame or to apply laws of morality
must have this double qualification. If the human race come to adopt
the principles of orthobiosis, a considerable change in the qualities
of men of different ages will follow. Old age will be postponed so
much that men of from sixty to seventy years of age will retain their
vigour, and will not require to ask assistance in the fashion now
necessary. On the other hand, young men of twenty-one years of age will
no longer be thought mature or ready to fulfil functions so difficult
as taking a share in public affairs. The view which I set forth in
_The Nature of Man_ regarding the danger which comes from the present
interference of young men in political affairs has since then been
confirmed in the most striking fashion.
It is easily intelligible that in the new conditions such modern idols
as universal suffrage, public opinion, and the _referendum_, in which
the ignorant masses are called on to decide questions which demand
varied and profound knowledge, will last no longer than the old idols.
The progress of human knowledge will bring about the replacement
of such institutions by others, in which applied morality will be
controlled by the really competent persons. I permit myself to suppose
that in these times, scientific training will be much more general than
it is just now, and that it will occupy the place which it deserves in
education and in life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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