CHAPTER IV.
Relation between the physical condition and happiness, and between happiness and longevity—Longevity a good, and why—Epochs of life—The age of maturity the only one that admits of extension—Proof of this from physiology—Proof from statistics—Explanation of terms—Life a fluctuating quantity—Amount of it possessed in ancient Rome: in modern Europe: at present in England among the mass of the people and among the higher classes.
Life depends on the action of the organic organs. The action of the organic organs depends on certain physical agents. As each organic organ is duly supplied with the physical agent by which it carries on its respective process, and as it duly appropriates what it receives, the perfection of the physical condition is attained; and, according to the perfection or imperfection of the physical condition, supposing no accident interrupt its regular course, is the length or the brevity of life.
It is conceivable that the physical condition might be brought to a high degree of perfection, the mind remaining in a state but little fitted for enjoyment; because it is necessary to enjoyment that there be a certain development, occupation, and direction of the mental powers and affections: and the mental state may be neglected, while attention is paid to the physical processes. But the converse is not possible. The mental energies cannot be fully called forth while the physical condition is neglected. Happiness presupposes a certain degree of excellence in the physical condition; and unless the physical condition be brought to a high degree of excellence, there can be no such development, occupation, and direction of the mental powers and affections as is requisite to a high degree of enjoyment.
That state of the system in which the physical condition is sound is in itself conducive to enjoyment; while a permanent state of enjoyment is in its turn conducive to the soundness of the physical condition. It is impossible to maintain the physical processes in a natural and vigorous condition if the mind be in a state of suffering. The bills of mortality contain no column exhibiting the number of persons who perish annually from bodily disease, produced by mental suffering; but every one must occasionally have seen appalling examples of the fact. Every one must have observed the altered appearance of persons who have sustained calamity. A misfortune, that struck to the heart, happened to a person a year ago; observe him some time afterwards; he is wasted, worn, the miserable shadow of himself; inquire about him at the distance of a few months, he is no more.
It is stated by M. Villermé, that the ordinary rate of mortality in the prisons of France, taking all together, is one in twenty-three—a rate which corresponds to the age of sixty-five in the common course of life. But in the vast majority of cases the unfortunate victims of the law are no older than from twenty-five to forty-five years of age. Taking them at the mean age of thirty-five, it follows that the suffering from imprisonment, and from the causes that lead to it, is equivalent to thirty years wear and tear of life. But this is not all; for it is found that, during imprisonment, the ordinary chances of death are exactly quadrupled.
In regard to the whole population of a country, indigence may be assumed to be a fair measure of unhappiness, and wealth of happiness. If the rate of mortality in the indigent class be compared with that of the wealthy, according to M. Villermé, it will be found in some cases to be just double. Thus it is affirmed that, in some cases in France, taking equal numbers, where there are one hundred deaths in a poor arrondissement, there are only fifty in a rich; and that taking together the whole of the French population, human life is protracted twelve years and a half among the wealthy beyond its duration among the poor: consequently, in the one class, a child, newly born, has a probability of living forty-two and a half years; in the other only thirty years.
In the great life-insurance establishments in England, a vast proportion of the persons who insure their lives are persons compelled to do so by their creditors; while three-fourths of those who voluntarily insure their lives are professional men, living in great towns, and experiencing the anxieties and fatigues, the hopes and disappointments of professional life. In one of these establishments in London, out of 330 deaths that happened in twenty-six years preceding the year 1831, it was found that eleven died by suicide, being one in thirty, implying the existence of an appalling amount of mental suffering. The number of persons belonging to an insurance office who perish by suicide is sure to be accurately known, death by suicide rendering the policy void. It would be most erroneous to suppose that these persons put an end to their existence under the mere influence of the mental states of disappointment and despondency. The mind reacted upon the body: produced physical disease, probably inflammation of the brain, and under the excitement of this physical disease, the acts of suicide were committed. More than one case has come to my knowledge in which inflammation of the brain having been excited by mental suffering, suicide was committed by cutting the throat. During the flow of blood, which was gradual, the brain was relieved; the mind became perfectly rational; and the patient might have been saved had a surgeon been upon the spot, or had the persons about the patient known where and how to apply the pressure of the finger to staunch the flow of blood, until surgical aid could be procured.
By a certain amount and intensity of misery life may be suddenly destroyed; by a smaller amount and intensity, it may be slowly worn out and exhausted. The state of the mind affects the physical condition; but the continuance of life is wholly dependent on the physical condition: it follows that in the degree in which the state of the mind is capable of affecting the physical condition, it is capable of influencing the duration of life.