Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-07-09
A PrOYerb Reviewed.

CHARLES LAMB once amused himself by
writing series of sunny essays to show
that many popular proverbs, passing cur
rent, and used often as unanSWerable ar
guments in favor of certain course of
action, are, as fact, fallaciOus and I'M
true; and certain it is that many of these
accepted maXims will not bear a very
close analysis.
Is it true, for instance, that "whom the
gods love die yOung?" This is very
consoling proverb for the young mother
who has lost a child too beautiful to
live" to the father who sees his bright
and promising son, who has borne away
college prizes and entered upon what
seemed about to become a brilliant ca
reer, fade away under the dread wasting
of consumption. But the proverb is
often applied to persons of genius; and
the rhetorical writer or author, uttering
a panegyric upon dead youthful talent,
seems often to prove, by its mere state
ment, that mental superiority has really
brought about, too early, physical disso-
luton. Dumas the younger, speaking
lately over the grave of the young and
gifted actress, Mile. Desclee, reasserted
the idea in his eloquent way. But is it
justified by fact?
We would not be Gradgrindian; when,
however, a misCOnCeption is likely to
arise, and singular doctrine of the rela-
lions between the mind and the physical
system is involved, it is at least interest
ing to dwell on its probable truth or
falsity. M. Dumas may, indeed, cite
many instances in which young men and
women of undoubted genius have died
young; but cannot many more instances
of genius living to a green old age be
found? Shelley died young; but then
he was drowned-his mind did not har-
row up his nerves and exhaust the phys
zeal vitality. Chatterton died young; but
he poisoned himself. Byron's early death
is easily accounted for by the self-in-
fiicted poison of eternal gin-and-water in
the middle of the night, and by excuses
of dissipation so inveterate that it is a
wonder he did not kill himself in the
twenties instead of the thirties Youths
of genius were beheaded during the Ter
rOr; this, surely, was not the exhaustion
of the vital tissues by an Unsuitable
brain.
The record on the other hand is a
very full one. Homer lived to old age,
and was old when he hawked the heXam-
etres of the "Iliad" through the ORR
entail cities Dante reached the reason
ably mature age of fifty-siX. Virgil lived
to nearly fifty. Milton died at sixty-six,
and Shakespeare at fifty-twO. Still more
striking instances of genius reaching
venerable years appear in Voltaire, who
was eighty-four; Humboldt, who was
ninety; Chaucer, who was seventy-two;
Dryden, who was seventy; Sam Johnsoni
who was seventy-five. Political geniuses
have not, as a rule, been less long-lived.
There were Lyndhurst and Brougham,
the rival champions Of Wings and Tories,
one OF whom exceeded ninety and the
other came within a couple of years of it.
Our own greatest trio of statesmen
Webster, Clay and Calhoun-all nearly
attained to the allotted three-score-years
and-ten, Calhoun, the Youngest. diving
at siNty-eight, Webster diving at SEVENTH
and Clay at seventy-flve. The great
painters who died at full age are quite
as numerous, the greatest of all, Raphael
being the most striking exception. Titan
llyeu 10 the arch-patriarchal wears of
nlnety-nlne; Michael Angelo arrived at
ninety; Leonardo de Einci passed
seventy; ana Ilntoretto died at the ace of
eighty-two. y
In our own day the maxim "Nybom the
| gods love die young" is contradictod ~
a number of remarkable instances w ~
tor Hugo is as hale and ROSY at sorAn+T--
two as if he had not been engaged in t5o
! throes of the most eXhausting mentaI
| labor for forty years; Theirs and Gni7ot
the one seventy-siX and the other eightT'
six. are still men of the time" in ynTv
| literal and active sense; while the En-
glish premier and his rival, Gladstone
have both passed their sixty-ffth wear
The fact is, that early death is mainly a
matter of physical endowment; rarely is
it that a remorselessly active mind frets
the body into the grave. The mental
action which affects health iniuriousIv
being common to small as well as large
brains has apparently no relation to the
degree of intellectual force.-Appletons
Journal.
IF a man is worm, is Government
official a red-tape worm?