, 1867-11-29
NUMBER sc.
TolIenUtSeR,a R,a,n

Inc eHAealth Hnd Longevity Of Brain Workers. :"
oy Dr. George N. Beard, au article ia Harper'.
Ouuy Psesent' some curious statistiet with
regard TO TIE physical effects Of intellectual Ia.
80, suoNIng g that eonstau; activity Of mind
Iotms tue most favorable condition for The at
ta'nment OF old aGe. Il is true that many who's.
names shlne brightest ia the GALAXY Of the
worlds thinkers, walked all their lives in sor.
row and pain, and sunk :nio premature graves
But on the other hanG !; is Just as true thai the
logical cause OF the suffering aud early decea,e
VI tnese men Is TO be found, IN most instances.
not 10 their Intellectual activity as autbors 60
much ss their native feebleness Of coustitption
10 their dissipated habits or instheir external
circumstances. Many delicate aaS finely struno
natures are irresistitly impelled to authorship
oy the force Of their genius, aod. il su6h are
doomed with life long battle with disease. sur.,
" their calling should not be held responsible
l0'deStd TlEt2a5s'phsasttu SO%e very themselves
OF the passions, and others die simply because
nature does not allow them sufficient capital to
sustain liiei but very few die simply from over
eIertion Of the mind.
Contemplate what wonders Of toll as well as
Of suffering have been endured by many authors
who have yet attained a good old age Sir
walter Scott, overwhelmed with debt, lonely
through bcreavment, persistently writing and
planning until be was past sixty; Dante, fighting
With poverty and his own weakness, plunging
into all mysteries and sciences for three score
years and ten; Edwards establishing a reputa-
tion as a theologian and philosopher that shall
stand forever, while be was obliged to measure
out his plain food according to the caprices of
his delicate stomach; Irving, worked at his desk
Tor ten and even fifteen hours a day rising of
ten at midnight to resume his task, and vet not
compelled to lay aside bis pen until he was sew
enty-siI. Besides these, scores of names are
at once suggested of men of genius and letters
wit
forms OF Ill, and yet have thought on and writ.
ten until past the allotted term of human life
College students are referred to as affording
examples OF vigorous and bounding health, not
inferior TO that ofany other body of young men
in the country. Intelligent farmers form an i'm
pOrtant class of brain workers, and it is gener-
ally known that they reach a Ligh average of
longevity. "But this green old age is not due
to their muscular exercise alone, for mechanics
aud laborers, who work even harder than farm
eTS, do not live as long by many years; it is not
due to the pure air they breathe, for many out
of door lauorers are much lower in the scale of
longevity than they; nor lastly is i: due to the
celmness of rural life, for the farmer if a free
holder, is burdened with grave responsibilities
and oppressed by weightier cares than the butch
eg in the market, the teamster on the highway,
or the workman he employs by the day, all Of
whom die much younger than he.
Farmers are long,lyed not only because of pure
air, moderate exercise and country quiet, but
more especially effects of merely physical labor
varied activity of the mind. OF nearly TWEEN
ty thousand of this class who died in Hassachus
salts, the average age was over sixty"
In our large cities also, the best physical de-
velopment is found 10 the most highly favored
class as regards material prosperity, and whose
mind. Mcfc6Giits Ana "danGRFetaPtr sSfiigBuP 81
er than artizans and laborers, but not SO long as
professional men. Reasoning from anology and
from the facts of biography, it would seem that
those endowed with unusual intellectual powers
can work harder and longer, all things being
equal than the rank and file of humanity,