May 28, 2023

Why Grow Old?

 Nature Has Bestowed Upon Us
The Power of Perpetual Renewal
 
 
O. S. Marden
  
Orison Swett Marden and his signature. According to
his biographer Margaret Connolly, he was born in 1850.
 
 
 
An Excerpt From the Essay
 
We must get rid of the idea embedded in our very nature that the longer we live, the more experience we have, the more work we do, the more inevitably we wear out and become old, decrepit, and useless. We must learn that living, acting, experiencing, should not exhaust life but create more life. It is a law that action increases force. Where, then, did the idea come from that man should wear out through action?
 
As a matter of fact, Nature has bestowed upon us perpetual youth, the power of perpetual renewal. There is not a single cell in our bodies that can possibly become old; the body is constantly being made new through cell-renewal, the cells of those parts of it that are most active being renewed oftenest. It must follow that the age-producing process is largely artificial and unnatural.  - From page 17.
 
(O.S. Marden)
 
 
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The essay “Why Grow Old?” was published in PDF at the websites of the Independent Lodge of Theosophists on 28 May 2023. It reproduces the 1909 edition printed by Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
 
Orison Swett Marden was born in the United States in 1850 (according to his biographer Margaret Connolly), and lived up to 1924.
 
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See the essay “The Elixir of Life”, by Godolphin Mitford, or “G.M.”, in the volume “Five Years of Theosophy”, pp. 1-32. And examine the article “Is the Desire to Live Selfish?”, by Helena P. Blavatsky: “Five Years of Theosophy”, pp. 33-39.
 
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Click to examine other texts by O. S. Marden.
 
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Read More:
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Helena Blavatsky (photo) wrote these revealing words: “Deserve, then desire”.
 
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