Excerpt from The Biblical Repertory and Theological Review: April, 1832 It is admitted, that there is a certain period of human life, at which the mind has attained its highest vigour; When all the faculties are finally developed, and are in their freshest vigour. After this period, knowledge may be acquired even with more facility and celerity than before, but we expect no new strength to be added to any of the faculties of the mind. Now this period of time occurs much later in life with some minds than others, and it deserves to be well consider cd, What relation this may have to the mode of education; and whether it is not a fact, that precocity of intellect reaches this acme much earlier than that Which is slower in its progress. And it should also be considered, whether an undue maturity is not followed by feebleness, and a prema ture decay. We observe, in regard to this last particular, a remarkable diversity. The mind of one man begins to fail at the age of forty-five or fifty, while that of another flourish es in vigour to the advanced period of eighty. And this cannot be attributed to the more sound state of the body in one case, than in the other; for in regard to this, there may be no difference; or the advantage as to bodily health, may be altogether on the side of the person whose mind is subject to an early decay. Indeed, in general, strength of mental pow ers has a slender connexion with health; a soul of mighty energies may dwell in a frail tottering tabernacle. And, while on this subject, we would remark, that we know of no method of postponing the decay of the intellec tual faculties so effectual as to keep them in vigorous ezer cise. Let the old man never indulge the thought, that the time for mental exertion is over - let him never suffer his mind to sink down into indolence and apathy - let him still keep his eyes open, and his attention awake to all the objects of knowledge Which interest others, and thus the rust of the mind will be prevented from accumulating. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.