William James, the great psychologist  , said that most men are "old fogies   at twenty-five". He was right. Most men at twenty-five are satisfied with their jobs. They have closed their minds to all new ideas; they have stopped to grow. The minute a man stops to grow -no matter what his years -that minute he begins to be old. On the other hand, the really great man never grows old. Goethe passed away at eighty-three, and finished his only a few years earlier; Gladstone took up a new language when he was seventy. Laplace, the astronomer, was still at work when death caught up with him at seventy-eight. He died crying, "What we know is nothing; what we do not know is immense (extremely large)." And there you have the real answer to the question, "When is a man old?" Laplace at seventy-eight died young. He was still unsatisfied, still sure that he had a lot to learn. As long as a man can keep himself in that attitude of mind, as long as he can look back on every year and say, "I grew", he is still young. The minute he ceases (stops) to grow, the minute he says to himself, "I know all that I need to know," -that day youth stops. He may be twenty-five or seventy-five; it makes no difference. On that day he begins to be old. The author mentions Goethe, Gladstone and Laplace to show that    _   .
the great man stops to grow that minute he begins to be old. the really great man never grows old. the great man usually dies young. the really great man never dies.