The prolongation of life / by R.E. Dudgeon.

  • Dudgeon, R. E. (Robert Ellis), 1820-1904.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The prolongation of life / by R.E. Dudgeon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    existence. He is often disposed to say with Moore’s melancholy muser:— “ I feel like one who treads alone Some banquet-hall deserted, Whose lights are fled, whose garlands dead, And all but he departed ! ” His memories, too, are largely tinctured with sadness. The friends of the older generation to which he belongs being gone, he cannot put himself quite in touch with the new generation; the occupations and interests of his vigorous life are no longer with him, and if he have failed to find some efficient substitute for them, he realizes in his own person the satirical description of a gentleman,” namely, “ a man who has no business in the world,” and it is not to be wondered at that he sometimes longs to be out of it. Without friends and without occupation, he experiences the most depres- sing and intolerable of mental states, ennui, and his lot, like the policeman’s, is not a happy one. So, with few exceptions, old age is rather to be deprecated than desired.