130 HUMAN LONGEVITY. 



Law, we have no connected evidence sufficient to warrant a 

 general conclusion, though many particular instances at once 

 suggest themselves of great judges, who have continued to 

 render eminent public services through a long term of age. 

 The Insurance Offices, until recently at least, gave more 

 distinct results as to the value of clerical life in England. 

 The Clergy, in truth, have formed their highest description of 

 insurances ; affording an average of life considerably beyond 

 that of any other class. We have great reason, however, to 

 doubt whether the hard-worked clergyman of the present 

 day will maintain this average for the future. The Medical 

 profession, both in England and elsewhere, comes much 

 lower in the scale of longevity. No material for satire can 

 be drawn from this fact. The hard labours, broken rest, 

 and anxious responsibilities of medical men, and their much 

 greater exposure to infection and other causes of disease, well 

 explain that, while seeking to prolong the lives of others, they 

 are often shortening their own. 



The longevity of statesmen, and of men of letters, forms 

 another curious topic of enquiry; but of greater difficulty 

 from the more doubtful definition of these classes. Here 

 again we must reject the evidence of particular cases, as 

 not leading to any certain conclusion. We read of Henry 

 Dandolo reaching the age of 97 ; Cardinal Fleury, 90 ; 

 Bolingbroke, 79; Alberoni, 80; Pombal, 83 years. In our 

 own times we are familiar with the venerable aspect and 

 antique manners of Talleyrand, Metternich, and Nesselrode 

 statesmen who have played so various a part amid the 

 changes of dynasties and the conflicts of empires. And 

 again, among the greatest men of our own country, less 

 exposed indeed to revolutionary storms, we find the names 

 of many who, happily for this nation, have continued the 

 eminent labours and services of earlier life into a prolonged 

 age of honour and usefulness. Of the Duke of Wellington 



