Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/321

Rh his riper and broader years. 'First Principles' the first work in the series, was finished when he was forty-two years old; 'Principles of Psychology' when he was fifty-two; 'Principles of Sociology' when he was fifty-six and one of the greatest in his ethics series, 'Justice' came at the age of seventy-one. He was close upon eighty when his monumental 'Synthetic Philosophy' was completed, and the person has not yet appeared who has discovered any diminution of his powers from the earlier work to the last page of the final volume.

The only aspect of the matter that is worth troubling about is the assertion that no creative, original or vitally important work is accomplished by men who have passed forty years. The difficulty is to make selections from the abundance of rich material at hand. We have a casual list, and one of the first names is that of an American. Benjamin Franklin was eighty-four years old when he died in 1790. His early life and achievements do not concern us, and are well known. When he was past sixty he was the chief instrumentality in the repeal of the Stamp Act; and after he had reached seventy years he was the main element of inspiration, energy and brains in the first continental congress. At this period (1776)—when he was at the head of the mission to the court of France in aid of American finance—it is said of Franklin that he was 'one of the most talked-of men in the world.' This mission in its all-around results to America and to the world at large has had no parallel. Its chief elements were the bringing about of an alliance between France and the colonies; and the negotiation of a loan of twenty-six million francs, obtained mainly through his own wonderful personality—it certainly was not upon any established or recognized basis of credit. This, after he was seventy years old. At the age of seventy-seven Franklin was one of three commissioners who negotiated the peace treaty with Great Britain after the revolution. Even at the age of eighty his countrymen considered his services invaluable, and refused to be deprived of them. He devised the most original, valuable, important and far-reaching feature of the constitution of the United States, namely, that which gives the states equal representation in the Senate and representation according to population in the House.

A large book could be filled with equally interesting and pertinent data concerning the achievements of men past middle life; but we may do little else than mention some of them. Christopher Columbus was fifty-six years old when he discovered America; and when he returned from his last voyage to the West Indies and South America he was sixty-eight. Magellan was forty-nine years old when he sailed away upon his globe-girdling voyage—the first man to circumnavigate the world. Baron Humboldt postponed until he reached seventy-six the crowning work of his life, finishing it ('The Kosmos') with high