LONGEVITY. 589 



The votes that killed Cavour and Disraeli probably revived La 

 Marmora and Gladstone. Success is a panacea ; a series of long-lived 

 rulers will generally be found to coincide with an era of national tri- 

 umphs, and a general increase of longevity with a period of material 

 progress, industrial development, good crops, etc., for, when " living " 

 is cheap, one man's success does not necessarily imply the short-coming 

 of his neighbor. 



But, as Ludwig Borne says, " to be happy is one of the cardinal 

 virtues " there is such a thing as a gift of supporting vitality on an 

 accident-proof fund of good humor, a Mark-Tapley-like disposition to 

 exult in the disregard, or, at least, in the defiance, of bad- luck. In 

 stress of circumstances, Hamlet's alternative may often depend upon 

 the possession of this accomplishment, for I believe that it is one of the 

 talents which can be cultivated. ISTot all men can attain to the philo- 

 sophical eminence of Francis Fenelon, who valued gloomy days as a 

 foil to brighter ones ; but a step in the right direction is a resolute 

 contempt of trifling adversities, which leads to the habit of distinguish- 

 ing life from its incidents, the pilgrimage from the way-side vicissi- 

 tudes, and can be most easily acquired by keeping an ultimate goal in 

 view not a supramundane one necessarily, but something elevated 

 enough to aid us in overlooking the base annoyances which beset all 

 but the loneliest by-ways of modern life. This devotion to a nobler 

 and enduring, or even a permanently interesting, object a mere 

 hobby, in fact serves to enhance the value of life, and explains the 

 success of many survivors under apparently hopeless difficulties, the 

 victory of competitors handicapped with disease, poverty, and defi- 

 cient education ; they support a cause which supports them in return ; 

 they live upon as well as for a principle. Hence the apparent paradox 

 of the longevity of busybodies, of men who seem to burn the fuel of 

 life at an extravagant rate. Xenophon, Cardinal Richelieu, Ximenes, 

 Benjamin Franklin, and Frederick the Great, were probably the busiest 

 men of their respective nations, gallop-riders on a road where others 

 kept the even tenor of their way, but they bestrode their hobbies and 

 managed both to outride and outlive their competitors. 



It is, indeed, a mistake to suppose that the tranquillity, per se, of a 

 man's life tends to prolong its duration ; and the longevity of stagnant 

 villages and country parsons proves only how infinitely health out- 

 weighs all other means of happiness. The peasants of Southern Rus- 

 sia live almost as frugally as the Hebrew patriarchs, on milk, bread, 

 and honey, with a bit of cheese now and then, or a drop of hydromel 

 (half -fermented honey-water) ; their climate is dry and favorable to 

 perennial out-door life, and in spite of official tyranny, war, and rumors 

 of war, feudalism, and outrageous over-taxation, they outlive the free- 

 born British yeoman, with his strong ales and daily beefsteaks. But 

 the coincidence of dietetic and administrative abuses cuts the thread 

 of life with a two-edged knife, and in Northern Russia the average 



