Work and Longevity.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 7241, 23 August 1902, Page 4

Work and Longevity.

Shakespeare died at fifty, and I am sixty eight, with the consciousness of firmer health, fuller powers, and keener enjoyment of life than before. I believe Shakespeare died at fifty because ho retired from business. He had demonstrated for tho glory of tho human intellect that "myriad minds" could be housed in one brain, and then retired to Stratford to live at ease. I have observed that health and longevity arc indissolubly connected with work. Work furnishes the ozone for the lungs, tho appetite, and the digestion which supports vigorous life; tho occupation which keeps the brain active and expansive. When a man from fifty upwards retires—as he says, for rest—his intellectual power" become turbid, his circulation sluggish, his stomach a burden, and the coffin his home. Bismarck, at seventy-five, ruling Germany; Thiers, at eighty, France; Gladstone, at eightytwo, a power in Great Britain ; Simon Cameron, at ninety, taking his first outing abroad, and enjoying all the fatigues, as well as tho delights, of a London season, illustrated the recuperativo powers of hard work. Such men as these never ceased to exercise to tho full extent of their abilities their facilities in their chosen lines.