Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1884-08-30
IoSceYirxAN.Dl,,I =, IAeoa. !. I n ~
Work Preserves the lleal0l, IdIeness Wenk,
eilQ H.
Philadelphia nullelIn,

Fhlladelphin Bqllelln,
| Ericsson, thu veteran TX ycntor IA
4 fiShlyrsnRT ysvrS 0hlg 0llai Is in eR.
| feIIeht iic"lii and works, il X said,
sixteen hours a'tiay, thus proving
nh exception 10 the general rule
That old men are incapable uf great
fXertiuias But PERHAPS this eehen,l
rule, like many Others that are re.
eoivod without question, ,isn faIlacv.
terlEtllS n might be- hnlrly asserted
lhat busy men live longer than idle
men that work Is, after all, the
lrue eilxlr of life. Many nOtewOr-
my. instances whore iongevity coin
eldes with remarkable activity will
easily OCCUR TO The reader, 80
Was not Sophoclcs moro than
ninety when, To prove that .hewas
not IN his dOtage-as his heirs claim
eel In order TO get his ,Inoney-he
wrote one of his greatest tragedies 4?
DID not Humboldt do more work
~ Tour score than many bright men
DO at forty? Goethe, as everyone
knows, died with pen Ia hand at
the age OF eighty-two. Voa Isanke
the foremost of flying historians,
has just published another. volume
Of his Universal History. lie will
be eighty.ifne years old next De-
eember, Carlyleand Emerson lost
none OF their vigor until they reach
Ell three score years and ten.
And, today who iinaginos that
oliver Wendell Iielmes, already ON
the verge OF seventy-iive, il old?
Lobgfellow did some OF his best
work shortly before his death, at
seventy-hve, ana Whittier is now
Two years older than that. The
vast energies, whose sum In many
directions are known M victor
Hugo, show no signs OF decrepitude
although tits more than eighty-twO
years since Victor. Hugo was born.
Historiansit may beremarked have
usually been long lived. lls ,.f
Noltaire died AT oighty-fOur,
Thierry and Michlet at seveniy-six
Mignet and Guizot at eighty-soven.
George BancoiI Is now eIglly-f0ur
and George Tichnor lived 10 be
eighty. In public life we have had
several recent examples OF great
men whose power foE oEstatesInanship
did not diminish through age.
Gladstone Is nearly seveniy-tivea
PolmeFstOn was Prime Ministcrat
| he time 0f his death, two days be-
lore he had completed his eighty
first'ycar. Benjamin. Franklin, in
he last century, lived To be eighty
nVe.4ilsaAssf ..al 0Ars. .IaatL ....a..l
These instances ssullieaatO show
that there arc constitutions which
not only can bear, but which actu-
ally need The stimulants of hard
work uplt0 very advanced period.
Of COURSE, ON the other hand, might
be fcitel the rcnaTkahle mon, whog
died young, but even from their exc
perience the fact might be brought
Dut not that they were K killed by over
work, but by irrational work. Usu-i
ahy, as in the case 81 Keats, early
ieath Is the result Of chronic disease
who IL always mentioned
those whose lives stretched
hut span, was drowned ncciden-l
Iallys and there IL good reason TO
believe that hui for this he would
have lived 10 old age, because he
was physically strong Raphael,
Mozart, Byron, Burns and Schubert
just at an age when
most men reach their prime, hut IL
must not be forgotten that the three
their health by exces-
Ies. Shakespeare, NapoloatP CRsar
Ind BeethOven, recOgniz,Sl an the
giants in iheir respective
died nj between fifly
md sixty. But on the Othcr hand,
Michael Angelo. than whom no
nan ever expended more energy
N his vast achievements, lived tO
'e ninetv, aud Titan waa ninety
line. II Is evident therefore, that
while no strict law ram be establish
'd, there Is n relation between
and labor. Work pre-
erves the health, while idleneys
ends TO weaken il.