[00:08.20]I think that, from a biological standpoint, human life almost reads like a poem.
[00:14.94]It has its own rhythm and beat, its internal cycles of growth and decay.
[00:21.91]It begins with innocent childhood, followed by awkward adolescence trying awkwardly to adapt itself to mature society,
[00:32.57]with its young passions and follies, its ideals and ambitions;
[00:37.72]then it reaches a manhood of intense activities, profiting from experience
[00:44.02]and learning more about society and human nature; at middle age, there is a slight easing of tension,
[00:52.62]a mellowing of character like the ripening of fruit or the mellowing of good wine,
[00:58.88]and the gradual acquiring of a more tolerant, more cynical and at the same time a kindlier view of life;
[01:08.30]then in the sunset of our life, the endocrine glands decrease their activity,
[01:15.31]and if we have a true philosophy of old age and have ordered our life pattern according to it,
[01:23.22]it is for us the age of peace and security and leisure and contentment;
[01:32.95]finally, life flickers out and one goes into eternal sleep, never to wake up again.
[01:42.62]One should be able to sense the beauty of this rhythm of life, to appreciate, as we do in grand symphonies,
[01:51.58]its main theme, its strains of conflict and the final resolution.
[01:59.07]The movements of these cycles are very much the same in a normal life,
[02:04.92]but the music must be provided by the individual himself.
[02:11.00]In some souls, the discordant note becomes harsher and harsher and finally overwhelms or submerges the main melody.
[02:20.62]Sometimes the discordant note gains so much power that the music can no longer go on,
[02:28.13]and the individual shoots himself with a pistol or jumps into a river.
[02:33.99]But that is because his original leitmotif has been hopelessly over shadowed through the lack of a good self education.
[02:43.79]Otherwise the normal human life runs to its normal end in a kind of dignified movement and procession.
[02:52.93]No one can say that a life with childhood, manhood and old age is not a beautiful arrangement;
[03:01.24]the day has its morning, noon and sunset, and the year has its seasons, and it is good that it is so.
[03:10.72]There is no good or bad in life, except what is good according to its own season.
[03:18.71]And if we take this biological view of life and try to live according to the seasons,
[03:25.48]no one but a conceited fool or an impossible idealist can deny that human life can be lived like a poem.
