1874.) Notices of Books. 401 
‘‘ The golden decade alone represents nearly one-third of the 
work of the world, and nearly 25 per cent more dates than the 
silver. The best period of fifteen years is between 30 and 45. 
The advantage of the brazen over the iron decade is very striking, 
and will cause surprise. There is considerably more work done 
between 35 and 4o than between 40 and 45.” Dr. Beard, we 
may observe, is not particularly happy in the selection of metals 
to illustrate the comparative value of the respective decades of 
life. Tin, for instance, may reach fifty times the value of iron. 
It may be urged that many men of genius die young, and 
that, possibly, if not thus prematurely cut off, they might have 
continued to distinguish themselves up to an advanced time of 
life. This objection the author anticipates by remarking that 
“the average age of the great personages from whose lives the 
law is derived is not far from 66 years.” He continues—‘‘ On 
the average the last twenty years in the lives of original geniuses 
are unproductive.” ‘‘ The broad fact, then, to which these sta- 
tistics lead us is that the brain follows the same line of growth, 
maturity, and decay as the rest of the body; that the nervous, 
muscular, and osseous systems rise, remain, and fall together, 
and that the received opinion that the mind—of which the brain 
is the organ—developes and matures later than the power of 
motion, or of physical labour and endurance, is not sustained by 
the facts of history.” 
Having thus stated his general conclusion, the author takes 
into consideration qualifying circumstances and exceptions. He 
points out the distinction between original work, requiring en- 
thusiasm, and routine work, depending on experience. The 
former he considers the especial province of the young, and the 
latter of the old. ‘* The people unconsciously recognise this 
distinction between the work that demands enthusiasm and that 
which demands experience, for they prefer old doctors and law- 
yers, while in the clerical profession—where success depends on 
the ability to constantly originate and express thought—young 
men are the more popular, and old men, even of great ability, 
are shelved or neglected.” Here we may remark that in 
England, and still more on the Continent, the clerical profession 
is far from being the one from which originality of thought is 
most urgently demanded. The faculty of expression often seems 
to survive the power of origination. Thus the ‘old man elo- 
quent” may often, in the evening of his days, embody in words 
and give to the world the ideas which he had thought out in the 
days of his prime. ‘The most marked exceptions to the law 
are found in the realm of imagination; some of the greatest 
poets, painters, and sculptors have done a part of their very best 
work in advanced life.”” We might here, however, ask—whether 
enthusiasm is not at least as necessary in the elaboration of an 
epos, a drama, or a painting, as in that of a scientific theory or 
a patent? 
