Today the average duration of human life in the United States is just about 70 years for women and a little less for men. Conservative experts believe that man is really build to last about 100 years; and that medial advances and more healthful living habits could bring this about within a generation or two.
What good is it to add years to life if we do not also add life to years? In fact, unless people learn to enjoy life and to grow old gracefully, the extra years may be an additional burden.
From 18 to 30 years is roughly the period of highest physical and mental vigor. The experiences we accumulate from the day we are born help us to conserve and to use our physical and mental abilities more wisely, so that for some time after 30 years we are able to perform increasingly well in spite of slowly slipping vigor. After age 50 the increasing accumulation of experience is no longer able to offset the now more rapidly energy and therefore aging begins to assert itself noticeably and in many ways.
A number of things may come about gradually such as people who have not used eyeglasses before may at some time in their forties need them for reading, and in the...