Lesson 37
The process of ageing
What is one of the most unpleasant discoveries we make about ourselves as we get older?
At the age of twelve years, the human body is at its most vigorous.
It has yet to reach its full size and strength, and its owner his or her full intelligence: but at this age the likelihood of death is least.
Earlier, we were infants and young children, and consequently more vulnerable;
later, we shall undergo a progressive loss of our vigour and resistance which, though imperceptible at first
will finally become so steep that we can live no longer,
however well we look after ourselves, and however well society, and our doctors, look after us.
This decline in vigour with the passing of time is called ageing.
It is one of the most unpleasant discoveries which we all make that we must decline in this way, that if we escape wars,
accidents and diseases we shall eventually 'die of old age', and that this happens at a rate which differs little from person to person,
so that there are heavy odds in favour of our dying between the ages of 65 and 80.
Some of us will die sooner, a few will live longer -- on into a ninth or tenth decade.
But the chances are against it,
and there is a virtual limit on how long we can hope to remain alive, however lucky and robust we are.
Normal people tend to forget this process unless and until they are reminded of it.
We are so familiar with the fact that man ages, that people have for years assumed that the process of losing vigour with time,
of becoming more likely to die the older we get, was something self-evident
like the cooling of a hot kettle or the wearing-out of a pair of shoes.