Ethics and Entrances

Abstract

We may not feel as pessimistic as Macbeth that:

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That frets and struts his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more, (2)

but however long the player’s life, he (3) must at some time make his exit from the stage. Every attempt to prolong life is finally bound to fail, but there is no reason not to try to improve or at least maintain its quality until its last days, hours and minutes. The dying individual may even be helped to enter into an entirely new activity, or at least to maintain his dignity. Abiding respect for his wisdom is of the greatest importance when the experience that he acquired during a long life is seen as irrelevant by successors living in a time of increasingly rapid change. As Logan Pearsall Smith puts it: “The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people,and greatly assists the circulation of their blood.” (4) Or La Rochefoucauld, more appositely in the present case: “Old people like to give good advice, as solace for no longer being able to provide bad examples.” (5)

Article FootNote

Without civic morality, communities perish; without personal morality, their survival has no value. Bertrand Russell (1)