The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1872-05-30
IDAHO WORLD.
LONGEVITY.

LESSONS. His lnf0rmatlOn, II trustworthy
would be very interesting. not merely to in
surance officers, but to young men settling the
difficult question of their employments for life
If youth will be content with ffty-six years
he may become q doctor; il he requires year
more he may be an artist; if he wants fifty.
eight hears of life he may go to the bar; but
in order to have fair prospect OF obtaining
to sixty.fve he must become clergyman. Is
it better to attend to the physical or to the
spiritual wants of man, when nine additional
years of life reward the higher line of duty?
Does the superior longevity of clergymen
spring from the possession of good conscience
or from the fact that the responsibility OF at
tending to the soul presses more lightly than
that of attending to the body, or from differ
ences in the physical conditions OF the two
professions or from the varying demands
which they make upon the intellect? What
ever occult causes may be at work, it is plain
that in any case the average longevity in any
profession must be effected by number of
complicated conditions, and to unravel their
varying influence it would be necessary to
check these simple observations by others bear
ing upon different sets of causes. We may as
sumo, for example, that the intellectual con-
ditions go for something, though they are gen
orally subordinate to others which act more
Immediately When, for instance, we find
that artists come 50 low in the list, we may
suspect that not merely the irregularities To
which they are tempted, or their disposition
to town instead of country life, must be
accountable for q great deal, but also that
some effect should be ascribed TO the pecuari-
ties of the artistic temperament Ii would be
interesting from this point of view to compare
the average longevity of men who pursue diff
erent studies under similar physical conditions.
Thus we might ask whether In universities
professors Ut theology are generally found To
live longer than professors of medicine or OF
the fine arts. Ii so,> part of the superiority
of the clerical tenure of life must be ascribed
to the nature of their studies, as we'll as to the
external circumstances OF the clergy. We are
not prepared with any body OF facts bearing
upon these inquiries, and merely throw out the
hint for the benefit of those whom it may con-
Germ.
There are, however, few obvious facts
which may suggest the possible iruitfuinrss of
such Investigations. Parents have for good
many centuries been disgusted when their sons
have plunged into metre instead of tahiag 10
the countlng-h house; but they have never, We
suspect, made full use of the argument from
the deieterious influence of the pursuit upon
human life Poetry, we should be inclined to
say, from cursory inspection OF the most ac-
cessible facts, is almost as destructive as those
trades which are proposed TO be the subjects OF
government interference. lt is as bad as ra-
zor-grinding. Looking through any list OIL
English poets. the number of early deaths is
startling. Burns and Byron, and Shelley aud
Keats, and Chatterton will occur nj once. To
the list of those who died before fifty we may
add Spenser, Thomson. Collins and Goldsmith
Shakespear managed just to get beyond his
fiitieth year, and Pope and Gray got halfway
from Fifty to sixty; but an aged poet is an ex.
ception of the proverbial kind. Milton lived tn
a respectable age; but then be- long rcfrained
from indulgence in this dangerous practice tn
favor of the superior I'VE speak from santa
ny point of Yiew) pursuit of political life. He
did not long survive the recurrence of his ear /
lest pursuits. Cowper lived to nearly seven.
ty; but itfdrove him mad. Dryden reached /
the same age without the same penalty; and
Wordsworth, by dInt Of regular country life.
survived all his contemporaries, attained the re.
spectacle age of eighty. The only wonder. in
the last case, is that u man of so sound con.
stitution and placed under such favorable cir.
cumstances did not live to conute Sir G Corne-
wall Lewis; he is really a case of premature
death and we suspect that the lode on the In
timations of Immortality" took ten years out
OF his life, while bis other inspired moments
may account for the remaining period Be-
side which, two years in the lakes cannot be-
counted for more than one in London. Dry
den alone remains to confront us; and it must
be confessed that Dryden's poetry comes very
close to the borders of prose. BY way of
contrast. let us suggest the names of few
speculative philosophers among English wri
tiers of reputation. We find that Bacon and
Hume lived to be 65, Berkeley to be 90, Locke
~; Reid, Sc; and Hobbies, OIL Amongst the
German metaphyscians, Kent died at 20 and
Smelling at 70; whilst Hegel was prematurely
cut off at 62. In France, Malebranch lived,
in spite OF delicate constitution, to be q. and
then had to be killed by an encounter with his
brother metaphysician, Berkely. Descartes,
IL is true. died about the age of Shakespeare;
but Descartes was naturally delicate, whereas
we can hardly doubt that Shakespeare had a
fine constitution. If they had exchanged pur-
suits, no one can say that Shakespeare might
not have rivaled Hobbies, and Descartes per-
ished as early as Keats. Spinoza. again, died
ut A; but De Quincy very properly argues
from this and other circumstances that he 2
must have been murdered. Let US hope for !
the credit of philosophy that such was the !
case. At any rate, though the shortest lived !
of metaphysicians, he would have had a very 8
fair tenure of life for a poet. We have not a
INDUCED in any profound researches; but we
have had tie curiosity to determine the aver ;
age age of short list Of English poets. The d
result comes out precisely So, which, accord {
ing to our German authority, is just that of r
the most unhealthy Of all professions. The n
average, however, ia materially increased by 4