vincible constancy, and always triumphant over fame; never yielding to fortune: he was generous to those in power, he kept in the good graces of the people, and was a great master in party disputes, wherein he engaged with uncommon heat and vigour. St. Jerom, according to the more general opinion, lived to above ninety; a fine writer, and of manly eloquence; skilled in the sciences as well as languages: he was also a traveller, and lived austere in his old age, bearing a great spirit in private life, and shining diffusively from obscurity.

Two hundred and forty one popes of Rome have now succeeded to the chair; of which number only five are found to have lived up to eighty years; but martyrdom shortened the natural lives of many of the primitive bishops. John the twenty third pope lived ninety years; a man of a restless spirit, studious of novelties, and making many innovations, some for the better, and many for alteration's sake: amassing together great wealth and riches. Gregory, called the twelfth, created pope in schism, and a kind of interregnum, lived to ninety; but the shortness of his papacy leaves us no more of his character. Paul the third, lived eighty one years; a man of a calm mind and deep knowledge: he was also learned, an astrologer, and had a great regard

to his health; but was, like old Eli, over indulgent to his family. Paul the fourth, lived eighty three years; a man of a rough and austere temper, of a high imperious spirit, passionate, but eloquent, and ready of speech. Gregory the thirteenth also lived to eighty-three; a truly good man, sound both in mind and body, political, temperate, full of good works and charity.

The Essenes among the Jews are commonly said to have lived above a hundred years; a sect that used a very simple diet, according to the Pythagorean rule. Appollonius Tyanæus lived more than a hundred years; a man for such an age, of a graceful aspect: he was doubtless a wonderful person, and held by the heathens for divine, but for a magician by the christians; he was a Pythagorean in his diet, a great traveller, lived in reputation, and was worshipped as a deity; but towards the close of his life, he was accused and reviled, though he still escaped safe to the last. His grandfather also lived to a hundred and thirty. Quintus Metellus lived to above a hundred; and after having happily gone through several consulships, he was in his old age made Pontifex Maximus, and officiated accordingly for two and twenty years, without any faultering of the voice, or trembling of the hand. Appius Caecus lived to a very great age, though

his years are not recorded; the greater part whereof he passed in blindness, though without being dispirited; but still manfully governing a numerous family, a great dependance, and the commonwealth itself. In the extremity of his age he was brought to the senate in a litter, and was strenuously against the making peace with Pyrrhus; and upon that occasion delivered his speech, the beginning whereof is exceedingly remarkable, and shows an invincible spirit and strength. Hiero, king of Sicily, in the time of the second Punic war, lived almost to a hundred ; a man moderate both in his manners and government, a worshipper of the gods, a religious preserver of friendship, beneficent, and always fortunate. Hippocrates, the famous physician of Cous, lived to a hundred and four, and thereby approved and recommended his art; a man of prudence and learning, attached to experience and observation; not endeavouring at words or methods, but barely separating and laying down the sinews of science. Asinius Pollio, friend of Augustus, lived a hundred years; a man of great luxury, but eloquent, and a lover of letters; yet vehement, haughty, cruel, and seeming born wholly for himself. There goes a current report of Seneca, that he lived to a hundred and fourteen, but this cannot be true; for so far from be

ing a decrepit old man when promoted governor to Nero, that he was then extremely fit for business; and but a little before that, in the reign of Claudius, was banished for adultery with certain ladies of the first rank; a crime not suitable to such an age. Many of the Venetians are found to be long lived, even among their nobles; as the duke Franciscus Donatus Thomas Conterenus, and Franciscus Molinus, both of them procurators of St. Mark: but the most remarkable instance is, that of Cornaro the Venetian, who being a valetudinarian, at first began to eat and drink by weight and measure, for the sake of his health, which brought him by degrees to a certain diet; and this diet to a very long life, even that of a hundred years and more, with the entire use of his senses, and a constant course of health. And in our time, one Postel a Frenchman, lived almost to a hundred and twenty; the extremity of his beard, on the upper-lip, growing dark, not at all grey: the man was disordered in his senses, a great traveller, a mathematician, and somewhat heretical.

Amongst us, in England, perhaps there is no populous village wherein a man or woman of eighty may not be found. A few years since, at a wake in Herefordshire, there was a dance performed by eight men, whose ages put together

made up eight hundred years; for so much as some of them fell short of a hundred, others exceeded.*

In Bethlem-hospital, in London, destined to the reception of lunatics, there are found, from time to time, many distracted persons long lived. And so much for the history of longevity in man, with regard to individuals. We next proceed to collective or general observations.

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The succession of ages, and of the generations of men, seems no way to shorten the length of human life since the age of man down from Moses's time to the present, has stood at about eighty years, without gradually declining, as one might have expected. But, doubtless, there are times in every country, when men live to a longer or a shorter term; and they generally prove longest lived, when the times afford but a simple diet, and give greater occasion to bodily exercise; and shortest lived, when the times are more polite, or abound in luxury and ease; but these things have their changes and revolutions; whilst the succession of mankind holds on, uninterrupted, in its course. And, no question, but

* This history might be continued a century lower, with an account of many inemorable persons of both sekes, who have lived to above fourscore, and some to above an hundred; particularly such as old Parr, Jenkins, &c.