renovationem, vitam etiam parcissimam, contemplationi deditam. Aurum, margaritas, lapides pretiosos parvi facit. Aëris exclusionem, vitam in speluncis laudat, alimenta firma, carnes duriores, stomachum per vina styptica confirmatum, frictionem, inunctionem, corporis exercitationem modicam, balnea.

"Denique mortis historia. Perire animal quando spiritus motus supprimitur, quando denegatur refrigerium, quo strangulatio pertinet, quando reparatio inhibetur per inediam, aut depletionem vasorum. Atriola mortis, s. symptomata quæ vitæ finem præcedunt, quo etiam pulsus subpressus et vacillans. Restitutio submersorum. Quæ cuique ætati propria sint, juventuti, senio. Multiplex ubique eruditio et ingenii vis." 1

The idea on which Bacon's theory of longevity is founded, namely, that the principle of life resides in a subtle fluid or spirit which permeates the tangible parts of the organisation of plants and animals, seems to be coeval with the first origin of speculative physiology. Bacon was one of those by whom this idea was extended from organised to inorganic bodies: in all substances, according to him, resides a portion of spirit which manifests itself only in its operations, being altogether intangible and without weight.2 This doctrine appeared to him to be of most certain truth, but he has nowhere stated the grounds of his conviction, nor even indicated the kind of evidence by which the existence of the spiritus is to be established. In living bodies he conceived that two kinds of spirits exist: a crude or mortuary spirit, such as is present in other substances; and the animal or vital spirit, to which the

1 Haller, Bibl. Med. ii. 512.

2 This notion is prominent in the writings of Paracelsus.

phenomena of life are to be referred. To keep this vital spirit, the wine of life, from oozing away, ought to be the aim of the physician who attempts to increase the number of our few and evil days.

With respect to the instances of long life which Bacon has collected, it would be well to ascertain the sources from which his information was derived. But it is hardly possible to do this, at least in all cases, and in some I have even failed in obtaining any informa tion as to the age at which the persons in question died. I am inclined to believe that Bacon was in the habit of noting down instances of longevity as they occurred to him in the course of his reading. Thus he mentions the age of Ovid's father, which is only known from a passage in the Tristia. He has made use of all the instances of longevity mentioned by Pliny and by Valerius Maximus, and seems to have consulted some of the works composed in imitation of the latter by modern writers. The earliest of these is perhaps the Res Memoranda of Petrarch; the most often quoted is Fulgosius's Facta dictaque memorabilia. Egnatius's collection, entitled De Exemplis illustrium virorum Veneta civitatis et aliarum gentium, is the one which there is the most reason to believe that Bacon made use of. Three remarkable instances of longevity are mentioned by Egnatius and by Bacon in the same order. All these works (there are probably others of the same class) resemble that of Valerius Maximus, or rather the collection commonly ascribed to him, in consisting of anecdotes arranged under various heads, and subdivided by a general principle of classification. Thus in the case of Valerius Maximus, we have a chapter on valour, on piety, and so on, each containing

two sections, of which the first contains Roman and the other foreign instances of the subject of the chapter. Each chapter of Petrarch's collection is divided into three heads: Roman, foreign, and recent examples being placed together. Fulgosius divides each chapter into two sections, of which the second contains "Recentiora." Egnatius's collection having especial reference to Venice, he classes Venetian instances in a division of their own, and the remainder of each chapter consists of all others. In all these works there is a chapter entitled "Senectus," and Bacon may perhaps have referred to them all. The great age which was attained by Gartius Aretinus is first mentioned by his great-grandson Petrarch. But though Bacon repeats Petrarch's statement, it by no means follows that he had found it in Petrarch's book. The story is told also by Fulgosius and probably by many other writers, among whom I may particularly mention Theodore Zwinger. For there seems reason to believe that Bacon was acquainted with Zwinger's Theatrum Vita Humana, the greatest collection that was ever made of miscellaneous anecdotes. We find in the Historia Vita et Mortis that the grandfather of Apollonius of Tyana attained the age of one hundred and twenty years. Now in the life of Apollonius by Philostratus, which is the source from which we derive almost all that is related of him and of his kindred, nothing of the kind is mentioned. But in the first of Zwinger's folios we find the same statement as in Bacon. Zwinger refers to Raphael Volaterrensis, from whom those who depreciate the Theatrum Vitae Humanæ affirm that a great deal of it is taken. Under the head of Apollonius we find in the Commentationes Urban a sum

mary of his life. During his travels in the East, Apol lonius sojourned for a while with a college of Indian priests, one of whom, in a conversation recorded at much length by Philostratus, informed him of many things touching their discipline and way of life. In this conversation he is incidentally led to tell him that his grandfather, also a member of the sacerdotal college, lived to be a hundred and twenty. Raphael Volaterrensis repeats this story in a way by which a careless reader might be led to suppose that Apollonius's grandfather, and not the priest's, is the person spoken of. We have here the origin of Zwinger's mistake; and as it is not probable that two persons should have made it, we may conclude that Bacon's information is taken from the Theatrum Vitæ. I have thought the history of this error worth noticing, because (excepting Paracelsus) there is scarcely any obvious trace in Bacon's writings of his being acquainted with any Swiss or German author. This story is in itself somewhat instructive, especially as Bacon draws an inference from the error which he has adopted. Apollonius, he observes, lived to a great age, which is not wholly to be ascribed to his way of life, seeing that his grandfather did so too, so that he probably came of a long-lived stock. Thus history is often written, — the longevity of the family of Apollonius resting on no better foundation than that a compiler mistook the meaning of a statement which his predecessor had copied from an author of no good credit. There is another not wholly dissimilar mistake in the Historia Vitæ et Mortis. Bacon gives a short character of Asinius Pollio in connexion with a statement that he lived more than a hundred years. Now, though

Asinius Pollio died an old man, he is clearly introduced here because he was confounded with Pollio Romilius, of whom Pliny relates that when he was past a hundred he had an interview with Augustus, a circumstance reproduced in Bacon's transformation of the story in the phrase " Asinius Pollio Augusti familiaris."

Bacon on the other hand deserves credit for having perceived that the story of Seneca's great age was incredible he was not, however, aware of the origin of the mistake, which according to Antonius was first explained by Raphael Volaterrensis, and which I find mentioned, not long afterwards, in Cardan's Paralipomena.

Bacon's description of Postellus seems to show that while he was in France he had met with that singular and unhappy man. What is said of his great age rests probably on no better authority than his own: there seems no good reason to believe that he was much more than seventy when he died, though Bacon affirms that he was nearly a hundred and twenty. It would be quite in accordance with what we know of Postellus to suppose that he made himself much older than he really was in order to increase the wonder with which he was regarded. This kind of deception is not unfrequent, and it will, generally speaking, be more or less successful. The love of marvels and the sweetness of life incline men to believe in stories of extreme longevity, and when a man has grown old he meets but few who know when he was born.

Bacon's remark that out of all the popes four only had reached eighty is certainly incorrect. At least

1 About eighty or eighty-two.