The Prolongation of Life
Reading edition
Optimistic Essays By Élie Metchnikoff Author of "The Nature of Man," etc. 8vo. Illustrated Popular Edition. $1.75 net By mail, $1.90
M. Élie Metchnikoff is one of those rare scientists who have found a way to lay hold of and present to the world in untechnical phraseology, intelligible to the lay mind, such results of his researches as are of universal interest and go straight home to the bosoms and business of intelligent men. The Nature of Man, by the same author, was one of the most fascinating books, at once popular, and scientific, which have appeared for decades. The book here in question will stand beside it as a worthy companion volume. It is satisfactory to report that, absorbed as Metchnikoff is in "material" problems, and deep as he is in the mysteries of the physical universe, these essays show him to be an optimist who speaks with no uncertain voice.
A great deal of attention is given in The Prolongation of Human Life to the subject of old age and its causes, with scientific observations of special cases among human beings and the lower animals. The author suggests means of prolonging life and health, while contemplating natural death with serenity, and finding that agreeable sensations accompany its approach. Beyond a certain point it seems to him a disadvantage to prolong life. Passing on from these mortuary lucubrations, the essays concern themselves with psychological matters, with optimism and pessimism and in general with questions of science and morals. The temperaments of certain great men are analyzed in studies that have for their subjects respectively Byron, Leopardi, Schopenhauer, and Goethe. In the preface the author says that he has avoided, as far as possible, repeating points which have been sufficiently treated in The Nature of Man.