The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1884-09-12
LONGEVITY AnD LABOR.
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Philadelphia Bulletin.
Ericsson, the veteran inventor, was
eighty years old yesterday. He is
in excellent health, and works, il is said,
sixteen hours day, thus proving an
exception to the general rule that old
men are incapable Of great exertion.
But perhaps this general rule, like
many others that are received without
question, is fallacy. Perhaps it
might he fairly asserted that busy men
live longer than idle men: that work
is, after all, the true elixir of life.
Many noteworthy instances where
longevity comedies with remarkable
mental activity will easily occ ur to the
reader.
Was not Sophocles more than ninety
when, to prove that he was not in his
dotage-as his heirs claimed, in order
to get his money-he wrote one of his
greatest tragedies? Did not Humboldt
do more work at fourscore than many
bright men do ct forty? Goethe, "
every one knows, died with pen in
hand at the age Of eighty-two. Won
Rank, the foremost of living historians,
has inst published another volume of
his Universal History; he will he eigh-
ty-nine years old next December. Car
lyle and Emerson lost none oftheir Wig
or until they reached three score years
and ten.
And today, who imagines that Oil.
yer Wendell Holmes, already on the
verge of seventy-tiye, is old? Long.
fellow did some Of his best work shortly
before his death, at seventy.five and
Whittier is now two years older than
that. The vast energies, whose sum in
many directions are known Is Victor
Hugo, show no signs of decrepitude,
although it is more than eighty-two
years since Victor Hugo was born,
Historians, it may Ike remarked, have
usually been longlived.
Voltaire died at 81, Thierry and
Michelet at &c; Mignet and Guizot at
81. George Bancroft is now 81, and
George Tichnor lived to he 80. In
public life we have had several recent
examples of great men whose power for
statesmanship did not diminish through
age. Gladstone is nearly Is, and Pal
merston was Prime Minister at the time
of his death, two days. before he had
completed his eighty first year. Ben.
famine Franklin in the Lost century,
lived to be g.. ~. 49,,
These instances suffice to show that
there are constitutions which not only
can bear, but which actually need the
stimulus of hard work up to very ad.
vanced period. OF course, on the other
hand, might Ike cited the remarkable
men who died young, but even from
their experience the fact might he
brought out. not that they were killed
by overwork, but by irrational work.
Usually, as in the case of Keats, early
death is the result of chronic disease.
Shelley, who is always mentioned among
those who lives stretched but span,
was drowned accidently, and there is
good reason to believe that but for this
he would have lived to old age, because
he was physically strong.
Raphael, Mozart, Byron, Burns and
Schubert s,lccunled Just at an age when
most men reach their prime, but it must
not be forgotten that the last three un-
dermincd their health by excuses.
Shakespeare, Napoleon, Cesar and Bee
hoven, recognized as the unrivaled 81
ants in their respective departments,
died ct between fifty and sixty. ~
But on the other hand Michel Angelo,
than whom no man ever expended more
energy upon his vast achievements,
lived to he ninety, and Titan was ninety
nine. tits evident, therefore, that while
no strict law can he established, there is
relation between longevity and labor.
Work preserves the health, while idle
ness tends to weaken it.