OX BRAIX-WORK AXD HAXD-WORK. 107 



lawyers, physicians, merchants, scientists, and men of letters live 

 very much longer than the muscle-working classes ; that the greatest 

 and hardest brain-workers of history have lived longer on the average 

 than brain-workers of ordinary ability and industry ; that clergymen 

 are longer-lived than any other great class of brain- workers. 



The first of these propositions admits of statistical proof or dis- 

 proof. The life-lengths of the classes of men above mentioned can be 

 ascertained, and their average duration compared with the mean length 

 of life prevalent in their times and countries. But is the superior lon- 

 gevity of these classes due to the fact that they are brain-workers, or 

 must it not be traced to a complication of causes ? If brain-work is 

 per se salutary and conducive to long life which I do not deny and 

 if, as we may gather from Dr. Beard's second proposition here given, 

 its beneficial influence is proportionate to its intensity, we should find 

 the men whose brain-work is devoted to origination stand highest in 

 the list. As such I should undoubtedly rank discoverers in science, 

 inventors in the industrial arts, poets, musical composers, and painters 

 (not of portraits). But the third proposition entirely clashes with this 

 conclusion. Dr. Beard tells us that, of all brain-workers, clergymen 

 are the most long-lived. Yet they can scarcely be called the hardest 

 brain-workers, since what is demanded from them is not origination, 

 creation, but expression. If a clergyman initiates new doctrines he is 

 in danger of becoming a heretic. He is expressly forbidden to do what 

 is expressly demanded from the man of science or the author. In- 

 deed, till a comparatively recent date, the life of an English country 

 clergyman has always been considered as one of the easiest of all ca- 

 reers, making no heavy demands either upon brain or muscle. 



Indeed, Dr. Beard, when he undertakes a formal explanation of the 

 great longevity of the clergy, makes some very important concessions. 

 He remarks that " their calling admits of a wide variety of toil " 

 "In their manifold duties their whole nature is exercised" "Public 

 speaking, when not carried to the extreme of exhaustion, is the best 

 form of gymnastics that is known." Dr. Beard here admits, what I 

 also maintain, that the most healthful work is that which duly and 

 harmoniously calls into play all the various faculties of a man. Brain- 

 work is in itself good and wholesome undoubtedly better than pur- 

 suits which exercise the muscles alone, leaving certain regions of the 

 nervous centers inactive. But it is still inferior to work which exer- 

 cises the entire system. "Whatever calling effects this most thoroughly 

 and equally will be the ideal vocation. But it may be said that the 

 duties of the physician call a wide circle of powers into play. Why, 

 then, is he less long-lived than the clergyman ? In his case there is 

 wanting any physical exercise which may take the place of public 

 speaking, and he is more exposed to death from contact with malig- 

 nant disease. 



As an instance of the especial benefit to be derived from an exer- 



