448 Longevity of BrainsWorkers. [October, 
pastor exercises more widely and variously than any other 
calling. 
2. Comparative freedom from financial anxiety.—The aver- 
age income of the clergymen of the leading denominations 
of this country in active service as pastors of churches (in- 
cluding salary, house rent, wedding fees, donations, &c.), is 
between 800 dols. and 1000 dols., which is probably not very 
much smaller than the net income of all other professional 
classes. Further, the income of clergymen in active service 
is collected and paid with greater certainty and regularity, 
and less labour of collection on their part than the income 
of any other class except Government officials. Then, again, 
their income, whether small or great, comes at once, as soon 
as they enter their profession, and is not, as with other 
callings, built up by slow growth. 
Worry is the one great shortener of life under civilisation ; 
and of all forms of worry, financial is the most frequent, and 
for ordinary minds the most distressing. Merchants now 
make, always have made, and probably always will make, 
most of the money of the world; but business is attended 
with so much risk and uncertainty, and consequent worry, 
that merchants die sooner than clergymen, and several years 
sooner than physicians and lawyers. 
By what I here say, I do not mean to give the impression 
that clergymen are properly paid: for it is thoroughly true, 
as was once remarked by a certain political economist: ‘‘We 
pay best,—1st. Those who destroy us—generals. and. Those 
who cheat us—politicians and quacks. 3rd. Those who amuse 
us—actors and singers ; and least of all, those who instruct us.” 
The average income of all classes in this country is small 
—about 700 dols. a year—and for the labouring classes not 
more than half that sum; and if the same efforts were made 
to obtain the details of the financial history of every family 
in the land, as has been done in the case of clergymen, there 
would be some very dreary reading. 
3. Their superior mental endowments.—The law which I 
derive from the study of vital statistics is, that other con- 
ditions being the same, the greater and richer the brain, the 
greater the longevity. 
Now I speak calmly and discriminately, and from a care- 
ful comparison of biographical data, when I say that the 
clergymen of this country—as represented by the Congrega- 
tional, Presbyterian, and Unitarian denominations—have 
presented a higher average of the higher kinds of ability 
than any other equally large class, of any age or section, of 
recorded history. 
