CHAPTER IX.
NAMES AND GOVERNMENT OFFICES.
THE Colymbians do not bestow permanent and indelible names on their infants as we do. Every person on coming of age selects the name which pleases himself best. Up to that time the young people go by pet names, such as Dick, Tom, Harry, Molly, Betty, Madge, or some other familiar and endearing appellation, that is not intended to be the permanent one. All come of age when twenty years old, if they have not earned their majority sooner. The age of twenty is selected on physiological grounds. Thus, the natural duration of man's life is held to be one hundred years, divided into five periods of twenty years each. At the end of the first period he is considered to have arrived at maturity, and to be fit for holding office under Government. At the end of the next period, when forty years of age, he is thought to have attained the utmost perfection of development. During the third period, that is from forty to sixty, he is considered to remain at his full vigour of mind and body. From sixty to eighty he is said to decline slowly, and the last period witnesses a more complete failure of his faculties, during which he is exempted from the occupations and labours of life,
