MAN'S BEST AGE

Evening Star, Issue 20988, 30 December 1931, Page 1

MAN'S BEST AGE

Sir James Irvine, in Ills post-gradu-ation address at the recent graduation ceremony in the University of St. Andrews, said that some four years ago a serious effort was made to assess the ago at which different members of a community began to be intellectually productive. Initially the exploration had been intended to throw light on the vexed question of retiring ages, and in the end an emphatic denial was given to Sir William Osier’s celebrated statement that “ the effective, moving vitalising work of the world is done between the ages of 28 and 40.” The report was a triumph for maturity, and was a statistical counterblast to the many eloquent calls to youth to which they were so well accustomed. When was the summum bonum of a man’s life? When did it begin, and was there a peak point in the curve which thereafter rapidly descended? The answer was gratifying, for the class grouped as “ thinkers ” headed the list at the fairly mature age of 52. Ho was a little disturbed to find that chemists and physicists appeared in the lowest average within this group and were said to do their best work at 41; they were the sprinters in the race of life. Divines, although quick starters, got slowly into their stride and worked up to their top speed at 50. Physicians, surgeons, and statesmen (how, he wondered, were the achievements of statesmen measured?) followed at 52, while the philosophers and mathematicians found themselves _in strange company with the humorists at 56. Historians, presumably either a leisurely class or men of extreme caution, were fully matured at 57, while the naturalists were the long-distance men, for their pace improved steadily up to 60. They must not overlook the final and indeed the deciding factor of how long a man could maintain the standard. How long could he stay the course? The list of achievements of maturity was long, and although it was always easier to assess quantity than quality, the collective evidence showed that if he had the will and enjoyed reasonable health a man, once he had reached the optimum point, can continue to produce work equal to his best for a further space of nearly twenty years. The speed was slower, he might produce less, but he made fewer mistakes.