It is a remarkable thing in the stalk of fruit, that all the nutriment, which sometimes produces such large masses, should be compelled to pass through so slender a neck; for fruits never adhere to the trunk or branches without some stalk between.

It is observable that animal seed is uncapable of nutrition, unless it be fresh; whilst the seeds of vegetables remain nourishable for a long time. Shoots however will not grow, unless grafted fresh and green; nor will roots themselves long preserve their vegetative power, unless covered over with earth.

The degrees of nutrition in animals differ with their age; the fœtus is first nourished by the juices of the mother; with milk, after the birth; next with meats and drinks; and in old age, the grosser and higher relished foods are generally the most agreeable.

It has a capital tendency to the present enquiry, with diligence and attention to discover, whether nutrition may not be performed from without; at least otherwise than by the mouth. Baths of milk are used in consumptions, and emaciating diseases; and some physicians judge a degree of nutrition procurable by glysters. Let this be examined to the bottom: for if nutrition could be secured by externals, or otherwise than by the stomach; then the weakness of digestion which

attends old age, might be compensated by such helps; and a renovation be thus procured.*

THE Scripture relates that, before the flood, men lived to several hundreds of years; though none of the antediluvians arrived to a thousand. This longevity cannot be attributed to grace, or the sacred lineage; because there are reckoned, before the deluge, eleven generations, and but eight generations of the sons of Adam by Cain; so that the posterity of Cain seems to have been longest lived. This great age however was, immediately after the flood, reduced to an half: though only in such as were born posterior to

*This enquiry seems not hitherto sufficiently prosecuted, to determine with certainty, how far nutrition is procurable by glysters, unguents, baths, impregnated air, &c. Something however we find casually effected in this way; but the thing requires an express set of experiments to measure its force, and reduce it to rule.

the flood for Noah, who was born prior to it, arrived at the age of his fathers; and Shem lived to six hundred years. But three generations after the deluge, the life of man was reduced to about a fourth of the primitive standard; that is, to about two hundred years.

Abraham lived a hundred and seventy-five years; a couragious and prosperous man. Isaac lived to a hundred and eighty; a man of peace and chastity. And Jacob, a man of troubles and a numerous offspring, held out to a hundred and forty; being patient, mild and subtile. Ishmael, a military man, lived a hundred and thirty years, Sarah, the only woman whose age is mentioned, lived to a hundred and twenty-seven; a woman of beauty and resolution; an excellent mother and wife; no less famous for her frankness than her duty to her husband. Joseph, a prudent and politic man, who suffered affliction in his youth, but afterwards saw great felicity, lived to a hundred and ten years. His elder brother Levi, lived to a hundred and thirty-seven; a revengeful man and impatient of injuries. The son of Levi also arrived at nearly the same age; so did his grandson, the father of Moses and Aaron.

Moses lived a hundred and twenty years; a man of courage, though of great meekness, and slow of speech. Yet Moses himself, in his psalm, declares the life of man to be but seventy years,

and the halest constitution but eighty; which standard seems, in great measure, to have been observed to the present time. Aaron, who was three years older, died the same year as his brother; a man of ready speech, easy behaviour, and somewhat variable. But Phineas, grandson to Aaron, is computed to have lived three hundred years; if the Israelitish war against the tribe of Benjamin, in which expedition Phineas was consulted, happened in the order of time the history relates it: he was a man exceedingly zealous. Joshua, a military man, a great leader, and always successful, lived a hundred and ten years. Caleb was his contemporary; and seems his equal in age. Ehud the judge, seems at least to have been a hundred; as after the victory over the Moabites, the holy-land had eighty years rest under his government: he was a bold and daring man; devoting himself to the service of his people.

Job after being restored to his felicity, lived a hundred and forty years; and had before his affliction children at man's estate: he was a political, eloquent, and beneficent man, and an example of patience. Eli the priest, lived ninety eight years; a corpulent man, of an easy temper, and indulgent to his children. Elisha the prophet, seems to have lived to more than a hundred; as continuing sixty years after the assump

tion of Elias; yet at the time of that assumption, the boys mocked him by the name of old baldhead: he was a vehement man, severe, of an austere life, and a despiser of riches. Esaiah the prophet, seems to have been a hundred, for he is found to have prophesied through the course of seventy years; but the time he began to prophesy, and the time he died are both uncertain he was a man of great eloquence, prophesied of the gospel, and was full of the promises of God as to the new covenant.

Tobias the elder, lived a hundred and fifty eight years, and the younger a hundred and twenty seven; both merciful men, and charitable. In the time of the captivity, many of the Jews who returned from Babylon seemed to have been long lived; as they are said to have remembered and bewailed the difference of the two temples, at the distance of seventy years. Many ages after this, in the time of our Saviour, we find Simeon, a man of ninety, full of religion, hope and expectation. At the same time, Anna the prophetess is found to have lived to above an hundred; as having been married seven years, and a widow for eighty-four; whereto must be added the years of her virgin state; and those she lived after her prophesy of our Saviour: she was a holy woman, that spent her days in prayer and fasting.