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Bertrand Russell |
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A brilliant British mathematician, scientist, philosopher and
essayist, Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872-1970) received in
1950 the Nobel Prize for literature. All his life he was a
pacifist and an active opponent of the atom bomb. Because of his strong
opposition to the war of 1914-18 he was dismissed from Cambridge University and sent to prison. He
wrote and lectured a great deal on science,
sociology, psychology and the history of philosophy. In all his writings
he had the gift of making even difficult subjects clear and interesting. |
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How to Grow Old
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In spite of
the title, this article will really be on how not to grow old,
which,
at my time of life, is a much more important subject. My first
advice would be to choose your
ancestors carefully. Although both my
parents died young, I have done well in this respect
as regards my other
ancestors. My maternal grandfather, it is true,
was cut off in
the flower
of his youth at the age of sixty-seven, but my other three grandparents
all lived to be over eighty. Of remoter ancestors I can only discover one
who did not live to a great age, and he died of a
disease which is now
rare, namely, having his head cut off. A
great-grandmother of mine, who
was a friend of
Gibbon, lived to the age of ninety-two, and to her last
day remained a terror to all her
descendants. My maternal grandmother,
after having nine children who survived, one who died in infancy, and many
miscarriages, as soon as she became a
widow
devoted herself to women's
higher education. She was one of the founders of
Girton College, and
worked hard at opening the medical profession to women. She used to tell
of how she met in Italy an elderly gentleman who was looking very sad. She asked him why he was so
melancholy and he said that he
had just parted from his two grandchildren. 'Good gracious,' she exclaimed, 'I
have seventy-two grandchildren, and if I were sad each time I parted from
one of them, I should have a miserable existence!' 'Madre snaturale!,' he
replied. But speaking as one of the seventy-two, I prefer her
recipe.
After the age of eighty she found she had some difficulty in getting to
sleep, so she habitually spent the hours from midnight to 3 a.m. in reading
popular science. I do not believe that she ever had time to notice
that she was growing old. This, I think, is the proper recipe for
remaining young. If you have wide and
keen interests and activities in
which you can still be effective, you will have no reason to think about
the merely statistical fact of the number of years you have already lived,
still less of the probable
shortness of your future. |
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As regards
health, I have nothing useful to say as I have little experience of
illness. I eat and drink whatever I like, and sleep when I cannot keep
awake. I never do anything whatever on the ground that it is good for
health, though
in actual fact the things I like doing are mostly
wholesome. |
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Psychologically there are two dangers to be guarded against in old age. One of
these is
undue absorption in the past.
It does not do to live in memories, in
regrets for the good old days, or
in sadness about friends who are dead. One's
thoughts must be directed to the future, and to things about which there is
something to be done. This is not always easy; one's own past is a gradually
increasing weight. It is easy to think to oneself that one's emotions used to be
more vivid than they are, and one's mind more keen.
If this is true it should be
forgotten, and if it is forgotten it will probably not be true. |
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GLOSSARY |
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at my time of life:
at my age (a mis años)
ancestors: ascendants, someone from whom
you are descended (antepasados)
as regards: with respect to (en lo que se
refiere a)
cut off: removed by cutting; in this context, removed
by death. Russell makes a joke of this phrase when he repeats it
in its literal meaning some lines below (fue cortada, rebanada)
the flower of
his youth: the finest part of his youth (la flor de su juventud)
disease: illness (enfermedad)
great-grandmother: a mother of your grand-parent
(bisabuela)
Gibbon:
Edward Gibbon (1737-94) is
famous for his "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"
(Edward
Gibbon (1737-94) famoso por su obra "Caída y Decadencia del Imperio Romano")
descendants: persons considered as
descended from some ancestors (descendientes)
miscarriages: abortions (abortos)
widow: a woman whose husband is dead (viuda)
devoted herself to: consecrated, dedicated
herself to (se consagró a, se dedicó a)
Girton College: the first women's college
in Cambridge (el primer colegio para mujeres de Cambridge).
melancholy: sad, melancholic (melancólico)
had just parted from: had just separated from (acababa
de separarse de)
madre
snaturale!: what an abnormal mother! (¡madre desnaturalizada!) |
recipe. formula or instructions for making and cooking a particular dish. Here it
means "advice on how to remain young" (fórmula, receta)
popular
science: scientific literature regarded with great approval, or
affection by the general public (divulgación científica)
keen interests: intense pastimes (pasatiempos
interesantes)
shortness: the property of being of short
temporal extent (brevedad)
as regards health: with reference to my health (en lo
que respecta a la salud)
awake: completely conscious (despierto)
in actual fact: in the practice (en la
práctica)
wholesome: good for the health (saludables)
undue absorption: excessive and deep interest
(indebido interés)
it does not do to live in memories: living on
memories does not work (de nada sirve vivir de recuerdos)
regrets: sadness associated with some wrong done
or some disappointment (lamentos, remordimientos)
in sadness about: sad because of the (entristecido
por los)
If this is true: this is the kind of sentence that
Bertrand Russell uses in
order to make us think carefully. The thought expressed in it is "If you
think you are losing your mental powers, stop thinking so and you will not
lose them. If you have never thought so, you are in no danger of losing
them" (si esto es cierto) |
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Click here to read
PAGE 2/2 of this essay |
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MAS "ENSAYOS INGLESES"
FORO
INICIO |
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