1875.] Longevity of Brain-Workers. 443 
languages. Meyerbeer, at five, played remarkably well on the 
piano. Niebuhr, at seven, was a prodigy; and at twelve 
had mastered eighteen languages. Michael Angelo at nine- 
teen had attained a very high reputation. At twenty, Calvin 
was a fully-fledged reformer, and at twenty-four published 
great works on Theology that have changed the destiny of 
the world. Jonathan Edwards, at ten, wrote a paper refut- 
ing the materiality of the soul; and at twelve was so amaz- 
ingly precocious that it was predicted of him that he would 
become another Aristotle. At twenty, Melancthon was so 
learned that Erasmus exclaimed, “‘My God! What expec- 
tations does not Philip Melancthon create !” 
Causes of the Exceptional Longevity of Great Brain-Workers. 
The explanation of the surprising longevity of great 
brain-workers is quite complex. The readiest answer to the 
problem would be that brain work is healthful; and that, 
therefore, the better the brain, and the harder it is worked, 
the longer the life of its possessor. Such a solution would 
not be entirely true; and if it were true unqualifiedly, it 
would clear up but one side of the question. 
The answer is to be found, not in any single considera- 
tion, but in many, as follows :— 
I. Great men usually come from healthy, long-lived ancestors. 
Longevity is a correlated inheritance of genius. In order 
that a great man shall appear, a double line of tough, more 
or less vigorous fathers and mothers must fight in the 
struggle for existence and come out triumphant. However 
feeble the genius may be, his parents or grandparents are 
usually strong; or if not strong, are long-lived. Great men 
may have nervous if not insane relatives; but the nervous 
temperament holds on to life longer than any other tem- 
perament. The great man may himself be incapable of 
producing other great men; in him indeed the branch of 
the race to which he belongs may reach its consummation, 
but the stock out of which he is evolved must be strong, 
and usually contains latent if not active genius.* Lon- 
gevity is, of course, hereditary, like all qualities or tenden- 
cies of organised life; and if great men come from long- 
lived stock, this fact is one most potent explanation of their 
exceptional longevity. 
* That intellectual qualities are subje& to all the laws of hereditary 
descent, so far as we know these laws, has been fully established by the 
researches of Galton in England, and of myself in this country. I therefore 
assume the fact without argument. 
