The error of thinking we must grow old, and the benefits of destroying that thought, have their rebuke and illustration in a sketch from the history of a lady in England, published in the London Lancet.
In early years, having been disappointed in love, she became insane; lost the calculation of time, and, believing she lived only in the hour that parted her from her lover, she took no note of time, but daily stood before her window, watching his coming. In this mental state she remained young as in her youth; her face presented no appearance of age; she literally grew no older. Some American travellers saw her at seventy-four years of age, and thought she was a young lady. Not a wrinkle or gray hair appeared; youth sat gently on cheek and brow. They were asked to judge of her age before being informed of her history, and each one judged it less than twenty. This instance of preserved youth furnishes a useful proof of metaphysics; it was a circumstance that a Newton might have built upon with even more certainty than the falling apple. Years had not made her old, simply because her mind had taken no cognizance of those years, and said, the body is growing old; she believed that she was young, and this proved the power of mind over the body, for years could not make her old when she believed she was young; the mental state governed the physical. Impossibilities never occur, and one such instance as the foregoing proves it possible to be young at seventy-four, and the principle of that proof makes it plain that decrepit age and witheredness are not a necessity of nature or law, but are personal beliefs that ought to be understood and destroyed. Never record ages; timetables of births and deaths are conspiracies against the fresh faculties and beauty of manhood and womanhood. But for the error of measuring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, we should present more than threescore years and ten, full of vigor, freshness, and promise—beautiful and grand, mind having so decreed it. Every succeeding year should make us wiser, better looking, and more active; for life is eternal, and we must find that out, and begin the demonstration thereof to-day. The good and the beautiful are all that is immortal. Then let us shape our views of Life into loveliness, freshness, and continuity, instead of age and ugliness; for "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."—Science and Health.
