This event had a most depressing influence on the boys, as well it might, during the entire day, and it was the principal topic of their conversation while together. During the two days following only brief references were made to the Professor, but the second evening George's inquisitive nature could not hold in any longer.
"When we were on the rocks examining the skeleton, you referred to the fourth and the sixth ages of man."
"Yes; in point of growth man has seven ages. The first is infancy, which ends at the second year; second, the age which ends at the seventh year; third, at the end of fourteen years; fourth, at the end of twenty-two years; fifth, at the end of forty-seven years; sixth, at the end of sixty-five years; and seventh, which ends at death. These divisions vary somewhat between males and females, and I have given you merely the average between the two sexes."
"I can't help feeling sad, when I think of the things that have happened, and at the thought that all our friends may have been lost."
"Sadness is a natural feeling under the circumstances, but after all, why should it be so? Why should the sight of the skeleton bring sorrow to you? Probably the Egyptians had the right idea when they always had a skeleton at the feast."
"Skeleton at the feast? What was that for?"
"As a reminder of death?"
"There is one thing I could never make myself understand. Why is death necessary? Why couldn't man have been made so he could live always?" was Harry's query.
"You have asked a very broad question. It is one which has a great many answers. At this time I shall give only one of the reasons. The earth would not be big enough to hold the people. I do not know the population of the globe to-day. It is about 1,000,000,000; and if we take the age of the earth at only 5,000 years, we should have in that time 125 generations, counting each generation as 40 years. Do you know what that would mean in population at this time? You could not comprehend the figures. Let us take the United States alone, as an example. Assuming that the population is 90,000,000 at the present time, and that the natural rate of increase is only double in each forty years. This is how it figures out: In forty years we would have 270,000,000; in eighty years, 810,000,000; in one hundred and twenty years, 2,430,000,000; and in one hundred and sixty years, 7,290,000,000. At that rate New York City would have 480,000,000 of people and its boundaries would take in the whole of the State of New Jersey and nearly half of the entire State of New York, as thickly settled as that city now is."