Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

3. The first breeding of creatures is ever material, either to their hurt or benefit. And, therefore, it stands with reason, that the lesser compression, and the more liberal alimentation of the young one in the womb, should confer much to iong life. Now, this happens when either the young ones are brought forth successively, as in birds; or when they are single birth, as in creatures bearing but one at a burden.

4. But long bearing in the womb makes for length of life three ways. First, for that the young one partakes more of the substance of the mother, as hath been said. Secondly, that it comes forth more strong and able. Thirdly, that it undergoes the predatory force of the air later. Besides, it shows that nature intendeth to finish their periods by larger circles. Now, though oxen, and sheep, which are borne in the womb about six months, are but short-lived, that happens for other causes.

5. Feeders upon grass and mere herbs are but short livers, and creatures feeding upon flesh, or seeds, or fruits, long livers, as some birds are. As for harts, which are long-lived, they take the one-half of their meat (as men use to say) from above their heads; and the goose, besides grass, findeth something in the water and stubble to feed upon.

6. We suppose that a good clothing of the body maketh much to long life; for it fenceth and armeth against the intemperances of the air, which do wonderfully assail and decay the body; which benefit birds especially have. Now, that sheep, which have so good fleeces, should be so short-lived, that is to be imputed to diseases, whereof that creature is full, and to the bare eating of grass.

7. The seat of the spirits, without doubt, is principally the head, which, though it be usually understood of the animal spirits only, yet this is all in all. Again, it is not to be doubted but the spirits do most of all waste and prey upon the body, so that when they are either in greater plenty, or in greater inflammation and acrimony, there the life is much shortened. And, therefore, I conceive a great cause of long life in birds to be the smallness of their heads in comparison of their bodies; for even men, which have very great heads, I suppose to be the shorter livers.

8. I am of opinion that carriage is, of all other motions, the most helpful to long life, which I also noted before. Now, there are carried waterfowls upon the water, as swans; all birds in their flying, but with a strong endeavour of their limbs; and fishes, of the length of whose lives we have no certainty.

lived, for it shows that nature finished her periods by larger circles.

10. Milder creatures are not long-lived, as the sheep and dove; for choler is as the whetstone and spur to many functions in the body.

11. Creatures whose flesh is more duskish, are longer lived than those that have white flesh; for it showeth that the juice of the body is more firm, and less apt to dissipate.

12. In every corruptible body quantity maketh much to the conservation of the whole; for a great fire is longer in quenching, a small portion of water is sooner evaporated, the body of a tree withereth not so fast as a twig. And, therefore, generally, (I speak it of species, not of individuals,) creatures that are large in body are longer lived than those that are small, unless there be some other potent cause to hinder it.

Alimentation or Nourishment; and the way of Nourishing.

To the fourth article. The history.

1. Nourishment ought to be of an inferior nature, and more simple substances than the thing nourished. Plants are nourished with the earth and water, living creatures with plants, man with living creatures. There are also certain creatures feeding upon flesh, and man himself takes plants into a part of his nourishment; but man and creatures feeding upon flesh are scarcely nourished with plants alone; perhaps fruit or grains, baked or boiled, may, with long use, nourish them; but leaves, or plants, or herbs, will not do it, as the order of Foliatanes showed by experience.

2. Over-great affinity or consubstantiality of the nourishment to the thing nourished, proveth not well; creatures feeding upon herbs touch no flesh; and of creatures feeding upon flesh, few of them eat their own kind. As for men which are cannibals, they feed not ordinarily upon man's flesh, but reserve it as a dainty, either to serve their revenge upon their enemies, or to satisfy their appetite at some times. So the ground is best sown with seed growing elsewhere, and men do not use to graft or inoculate upon the same stock.

3. By how much the more the nourishment is better prepared, and approacheth nearer in likeness to the thing nourished, by so much the more are plants more fruitful, and living creatures in better liking and plight; for a young slip or cion is not so well nourished if it be pricked into the ground, as if it be grafted into a stock agreeing with it in nature, and where it finds the nourish9. Those creatures which are long before they ment already digested and prepared; neither (as come to their perfection, (not speaking of growth is reported) will the seed of an onion, or some in stature only, but of other steps to maturity, as such like, sown in the bare earth, bring forth so man puts forth, first, his teeth, next, the signs of large a fruit as if it be put into another onion, puberty, then his beard, and so forward,) are long-which is a new kind of grafting into the root or

[ocr errors]

under ground. Again, it hath been found out lately, that a slip of a wild tree, as of an elm, oak, ash, or such like, grafted into a stock of the same kind, will bring forth larger leaves than those that grow without grafting. Also men are not nourished so well with raw flesh as with that which hath passed the fire.

4. Living creatures are nourished by the mouth, plants by the root, young ones in the womb by the navel. Birds for a while are nourished with the yolk in the egg, whereof some is found in their crops after they are hatched.

or some other way than by the stomach, then the weakness of concoction, which is incident to old men, might be recompensed by these helps, and concoction restored to them entire.

Length and Shortness of Life in Man.

To the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and eleventh articles The History.

1. Before the flood, as the sacred Scriptures relate, men lived many hundred years; yet none of the fathers attained to a full thousand. Neither was this length of life peculiar only to grace or the holy line; for there are reckoned of the fathers, until the flood, eleven generations; but of the sons of Adam, by Cain, only eight generations; so as the posterity of Cain may seem the longer lived. But this length of life,

5. All nourishment moveth from the centre to the circumference, or from the inward to the outward; yet it is to be noted, that in trees and plants the nourishment passeth rather by the bark and outward parts, than by the pith and inward parts; for if the bark be pulled off, though | immediately after the flood, was reduced to a but for a small breadth round, they live no more; and the blood in the veins of living creatures doth no less nourish the flesh beneath than the flesh above it.

6. In all alimentation or nourishment there is a twofold action, extusion, and attraction; whereof the former proceeds from the inward function, the latter from the outward.

8. It is a strange thing of the stalks of fruits, that all the nourishment which produceth sometimes such great fruits, should be forced to pass through so narrow necks; for the fruit is never joined to the stocks without some stalk.

moiety, but in the postnati; for Noah, who was born before, equalled the age of his ancestors, and Sem saw the six hundredth year of his life. Afterwards, three generations being run from the flood, the life of man was brought down to a fourth part of the primitive age, that was, to about two hundred years.

2. Abraham lived a hundred and seventy and

7. Vegetables assimilate their nourishment sim-five years; a man of a high courage, and prosperply, without excerning; for gums and tears of ous in all things. Isaac came to a hundred and trees are rather exuberances than excrements, and eighty years of age; a chaste man, and enjoying knots or knobs are nothing but diseases. But more quietness than his father. But Jacob, after the substance of living creatures is more percep- many crosses, and a numerous progeny, lasted to tible of the like; and, therefore, it is conjoined the one hundred and forty-seventh year of his life; with a kind of disdain, whereby it rejecteth the a patient, gentle, and wise man. Ismael, a milibad and assimilateth the good. tary man, lived a hundred and thirty and seven years. Sarah (whose years only amongst women are recorded) died in the hundred and twentyseventh year of her age; a beautiful and magnanimous woman, a singular good mother and wife, and yet no less famous for her liberty than obsequiousness towards her husband. Joseph, also, a prudent and politic man, passing his youth in affliction, afterwards advanced to the height of honour and prosperity, lived a hundred and ten years. But his brother Levi, older than himself, attained to a hundred and thirty-seven years; a man impatient of contumely and revengeful. Near unto the same age attained the son of Levi; also his grandchild, the father of Aaron and Moses.

9. It is to be noted, that the seeds of living creatures will not be fruitful but when they new shed, but the seeds of plants will be fruitful a long time after they are gathered; yet the slips or cions of trees will not grow unless they be grafted green, neither will the roots keep long fresh unless they be covered with earth.

10. In living creatures there are degrees of nourishment according to their age; in the womb, the young one is nourished with the mother's blood; when it is new-born, with milk; afterwards with meats and drinks: and in old age the most nourishing and savoury meats please best.

3. Moses lived a hundred and twenty years; a stout man, and yet the meekest upon the earth and of a very slow tongue. Howsoever, Moses, Above all, it maketh to the present inquisition, in his psalm, pronounceth that the life of man is to inquire diligently and attentively whether a but seventy years, and if a man have strength, man may not receive nourishment from without, then eighty; which term of man's life standeth at least some other way besides the mouth. We firm in many particulars even at this day. Aaron, know that baths of milk are used in some hectic who was three years the older, died the same fevers, and when the body is brought extreme year with his brother; a man of a readier speech, low, and physicians do provide nourishing glis- of a more facile disposition, and less constant. ters. This matter would be well studied; for if But Phineas, grandchild of Aaron, (perhaps out nourishment may be made either from without, of extraordinary grace,) may be collected to have

which reigned longest did not exceed fifty, or five-and-fifty years; which is no great matter, seeing many at this day attain to those years. But the Arcadian kings are fabulously reported to have lived very long. Surely that country was mountainous, full of flocks of sheep, and brought forth most wholesome food, notwithstanding, seeing Pan was their god, we may conceive that all things about them were panic and vain, and subject to fables.

7. Numa, King of the Romans, lived to eighty years; a man peaceable, contemplative, and much devoted to religion. Marcus Valerius Corvinus saw a hundred years complete, there being betwixt his first and sixth consulship forty-six years; a man valorous, affable, popular, and always fortunate.

lived three hundred years; if so be the war of the we find nothing of moment in those works that Israelites against the tribe of Benjamin (in which are extant, as touching long life; for their kings expedition Phineas consulted with) were performed in the same order of time in which the history hath ranked it; he was a man of a most eminent zeal. Joshua, a martial man and an excellent leader, and evermore victorious, lived to the hundred and tenth year of his life. Caleb was his contemporary, and seemeth to have been of as great years. Ebud, the judge, seems to have been no less than a hundred years old, in regard that after the victory over the Moabites, the Holy Land had rest under his government eighty years; he was a man fierce and undaunted, and one that in a sort neglected his life for the good of his people. 4. Job lived, after the restoration of his happiness, a hundred and forty years, being, before his afflictions, of that age that he had sons at man's estate; a man politic, eloquent, charitable, and the example of patience. Eli, the priest, lived ninety-eight years; a corpulent man, calm of disposition, and indulgent to his children. But Elizæus, the prophet, may seem to have died when he was above a hundred years old; for he is found to have lived after the assumption of Elias sixty years; and at the time of that as-years; the matter is mixed with a prodigious sumption he was of those years, that the boys mocked him by the name of baldhead; a man vehement and severe, and of an austere life, and a contemner of riches. Also Isaiah, the prophet, seemeth to have been a hundred years old; for he is found to have exercised the function of a prophet seventy years together, the years both of his beginning to prophecy, and of his death, being uncertain; a man of an admirable eloquence, an evangelical prophet, full of the promises of God of the New Testament, as a bottle with sweet wine.

8. Solon of Athens, the lawgiver, and one of the seven wise men, lived above eighty years, a man of high courage, but popular, and affected to his country; also learned, given to pleasures, and a soft kind of life. Epimenides, the Cretian, is reported to have lived a hundred and fifty-seven

relation, for fifty-seven of those years he is said to have slept in a cave. Half an age after, Xenophon, the Colophonian, lived a hundred and two years, or rather more; for at the age of twentyfive years he left his country, seventy-seven complete years he travelled, and after that returned; but how long he lived after his return appears not; a man no less wandering in mind than in body; for his name was changed for the madness of his opinions, from Xenophanes to Xenomanes; a man, no doubt, of a vast conceit, and that minded nothing but infinitum.

5. Tobias, the elder, lived a hundred and fifty- 9. Anacreon, the poet, lived eighty years, and eight years, the younger a hundred and twenty-somewhat better, a man lascivious, voluptuous, seven; merciful men, and great alms-givers. It and given to drink. Pindarus, the Theban, lived seems, in the time of the captivity, many of the to eighty years; a poet of a high fancy, singular Jews who returned out of Babylon were of great in his conceits, and a great adorer of the gods. years, seeing they could remember both temples, Sophocles, the Athenian, attained to the like age; (there being no less than seventy years betwixt a lofty tragic poet, given over wholly to writing, them,) and wept for the unlikeness of them. and neglectful of his family. Many ages after that, in the time of our Saviour, lived old Simeon, to the age of ninety; a devout man, and full both of hope and expectation. Into the same time also fell Anna, the prophetess, who could not possibly be less than a hundred years old, for she had been seven years a wife, about eighty-four years a widow, besides the years of her virginity, and the time that she lived after her prophecy of our Saviour; she was a holy woman, and passed her days in fastings and prayers.

6. The long lives of men mentioned in heathen authors have no great certainty in them; both for the intermixture of fables, whereunto those kind of relations were very prone, and for their false calculation of years. Certainly of the Egyptians

10. Artaxerxes, King of Persia, lived ninety-four years; a man of a dull wit, averse to the despatch of business, desirous of glory, but rather of ease. At the same time lived Agesilaus, King of Sparta, to eighty-four years of age; a moderate prince, as being a philosopher among kings, but, notwithstanding, ambitious, and a warrior, and no less stout in war than in business.

11. Gorgias, the Sicilian, was a hundred and eight years old; a rhetorician, and a great boaster of his faculty, one that taught youth for profit. He had seen many countries, and a little before his death said, that he had done nothing worthy of blame since he was an old man. Protagoras. of Abdera, saw ninety years of age. This man

was likewise a rhetorician, but professed not so 13. Terentia, Cicero's wife, lived a hundred much to teach the liberal arts, as the art of govern- and three years; a woman afflicted with many ing commonwealths and states; notwithstanding crosses; first, with the banishment of her hushe was a great wanderer in the world, no less band, then with the difference betwixt them; than Gorgias. Isocrates, the Athenian, lived lastly, with his last fatal misfortune. She was ninety-eight years; he was a rhetorician also, but also oftentimes vexed with the gout. Luceia must an exceeding modest man, one that shunned the needs exceed a hundred by many years, for it is public light, and opened his school only in his said, that she acted a whole hundred years upon own house. Democritus, of Abdera, reached to a the stage, at first, perhaps, representing the person hundred and nine years; he was a great philoso- of some young girl, at last of some decrepit old wopher, and, if ever any man amongst the Grecians, man. But Galeria Copiola, a player also, and a a true naturalist, a surveyor of many countries, dancer, was brought upon the stage as a novice, in but much more of nature; also a diligent search- what year of her age is not known; but ninety-nine er into experiments, and (as Aristotle objected years after, at the dedication of the theatre by against him) one that followed similitudes more Pompey the Great, she was shown upon the stage, than the laws of arguments. Diogenes, the not now for an actress, but for a wonder. Neither Sinopean, lived ninety years; a man that used was this all; for after that, in the solemnities for liberty towards others, but tyranny over himself, the health and life of Augustus, she was shown a coarse diet, and of much patience. Zeno, of upon the stage the third time. Citium, lacked about two years of a hundred; a man of a high mind, and a contemner of other men's opinions; also of a great acuteness, but yet not troublesome, choosing rather to take men's minds than to enforce them. The like whereof afterwards was in Seneca. Plato, the Athenian, attained to eighty-one years; a man of a great courage, but yet a lover of ease, in his notions sublime, and of a fancy, neat and delicate in his life, rather calm than merry, and one that carried a kind of majesty in his countenance. Theophrastus, the Eressian, arrived at eighty-five years of age; a man sweet for his eloquence, sweet for the variety of his matters, and who selected the pleasant things of philosophy, and let the bitter and harsh go. Carneades, of Cyrena, many years after, came to the like age of eightyfive years; a man of a fluent eloquence, and one who, by the acceptable and pleasant variety of his knowledge, delighted both himself and others. But Orbilius, who lived in Cicero's time, no philosopher or rhetorician, but a grammarian, attained to a hundred years of age; he was first a soldier, then a schoolmaster; a man by nature tart both in his tongue and pen, and severe towards his scholars.

14. There was another actress, somewhat inferior in age, but much superior in dignity, which lived well near ninety years, I mean Livia Julia` Augusta, wife to Augustus Cæsar, and mother to Tiberius. For, if Augustus his life were a play, (as himself would have it, when as upon his death-bed he charged his friends they should give him a plaudit after he was dead,) certainly this lady was an excellent actress, who could carry it so well with her husband by a dissembled obedience, and with her son by power and authority. A woman affable, and yet of a matronal carriage, pragmatical, and unholding her power. But Junia, the wife of Caius Cassius, and sister of Marcus Brutus, was also ninety years old, for she survived the Philippic battle sixty-four years; a magnanimous woman, in her great wealth happy, in the calamity of her husband, and near kinsfolks, and in a long widowhood unhappy, notwithstanding much honoured of all.

15. The year of our Lord seventy-six, falling into the time of Vespasian, is memorable; in which we shall find, as it were, a calendar of long-lived men; for that year there was a taxing: (now, a taxing is the most authentical and truest informer touching the ages of men ;) and in that 12. Quintius Fabius Maximus was augur sixty- part of Italy, which lieth betwixt the Apennine three years, which showed him to be above eighty mountains and the river Po, there were found a years of age at his death; though it be true, that hundred and four-and-twenty persons that either in the augurship nobility was more respected than equalled or exceeded a hundred years of age: age; a wise man, and a great deliberator, and in namely, of a hundred years, just fifty-four persons; all his proceedings moderate, and not without of a hundred and ten, fifty seven persons; of a hunaffability severe. Masinissa, King of Numidia, dred and five-and-twenty, two only; of a hundred lived ninety years, and being more than eighty- and thirty, four men; of a hundred and five-andfive, got a son; a daring man, and trusting upon thirty, or seven-and-thirty, four more; of a hundred his fortune, who in his youth had tasted of the and forty, three men. Besides these, Parma in partiinconstancy of fortune, but in his succeeding age cular afforded five, whereof three fulfilled a hundred was constantly happy. But Marcus Porcius Cato and twenty years, and two a hundred and thirty. lived above ninety years of age; a man of an iron Brussels afforded one of a hundred and twenty five body and mind; he had a bitter tongue, and loved years old. Placentia one, aged a hundredthirtyto cherish factions; he was given to husbandry, and one. Faventia one woman, aged one hundred and was to himself and his family a physician.thirty-and-two. A certain town, then called VelVOL. III.-61

2 S

leiatium, situate in the hills about Placentia, short in the performance. Anastasius, surnamed afforded ten, whereof six fulfilled a hundred and ten years of age, four a hundred and twenty. Lastly, Rimini, one of a hundred and fifty years, whose name was Marcus Aponius.

That our catalogue might not be extended too much in length, we have thought fit, as well in those whom we have rehearsed, as in those whom we shall rehearse, to offer none under eighty years of age. Now we have affixed to every one a true and short character or elogy; but of that sort whereunto, in our judgment, length of life (which is not a little subject to the manners and fortunes of men) hath some relation, and that in a twofold respect; either that such kind of men are for the most part long-lived, or that such men may sometimes be of long life, though otherwise not well disposed for it.

16. Amongst the Roman and Grecian emperors, also, the French and Almain, to these our days, which make up the number of well near two hundred princes, there are only four found that lived to eighty years of age; unto whom we may add the two first emperors, Augustus and Tiberius, whereof the latter fulfilled the seventyand-eighth year, the former the seventy-and-sixth year of his age, and might both, perhaps, have lived to forescore, if Livia and Caius had been pleased. Augustus (as was said) lived seventyand-six years; a man of moderate disposition, in accomplishing his designs vehement, but otherwise calm and serene; in meat and drink sober, venery intemperate, through all his lifetime happy; and who, about the thirtieth year of his life, had a great and dangerous sickness, insomuch as they despaired of life in him, whom Antonius Musa, the physician, when other physicians had applied hot medicines, as most agreeable to his disease, on the contrary cured with cold medicines, which perchance might be some help to the prolonging of his life. Tiberius lived to be two years older; a man with lean chaps, as Augustus was wont to say, for his speech stuck within his jaws, but was weighty. He was bloody, a drinker, and one that took lust into a part of his diet; notwithstanding a great observer of his health, insomuch that he used to say that he was a fool, that after thirty years of age took advice of a physician. Gordian, the elder, lived eighty years, and yet died a violent death, when he was scarce warm in his empire; a man of a high spirit, and renowned, learned, and a poet, and constantly happy throughout the whole course of his life, save only that he ended his days by a violent death. Valerian, the emperor, was seventy-six years of age before he was taken prisoner by Sapor, King of Persia. After his captivity he lived seven years in reproaches, and then died a violent death also; a man of a poor mind, and not valiant, notwithstanding lifted up in his own, and the opinion of men, but falling

Dicorut, lived eighty-eight years; he was of a settled mind, but too abject, and superstitious, and fearful. Anicius Justinianus lived to eightythree years, a man greedy of glory, performing nothing in his own person, but in the valour of his captains happy and renowned, uxorious, and not his own, but suffering others to lead him. Helena, of Britain, mother of Constantine the Great, was fourscore years old; a woman that intermeddled not in matters of state, neither in her husband's nor son's reign, but devoted herself wholly to religion; magnanimous, and perpetually flourishing. Theodora, the empress, (who was sister to Zoes, wife of Monomachus, and reigned alone after her decease,) lived above eighty years; a pragmatical woman, and one that took delight in governing; fortunate in the highest degree, and through her good fortunes credulous. 17. We will proceed now from these secular princes to the princes in the church; St. John, an apostle of our Saviour, and the beloved disciple, lived ninety-three years. He was rightly denoted under the emblem of the eagle, for his piercing sight into the divinity, and was a seraph amongst the apostles, in respect of his burning love. St. Luke, the Evangelist, fulfilled fourscore and four years; an eloquent man, and a traveller, St. Paul's inseparable companion, and a physician. Simeon, the son of Cleophas, called the brother of our Lord, and Bishop of Jerusalem, lived a hundred and twenty years, though he was cut short by martyrdom; a stout man, and constant, and full of good works. Polycarpus, disciple unto the apostles, and Bishop of Smyrna, seemeth to have extended his age to a hundred years and more, though he were also cut off by martyrdom; a man of a high mind, of an heroical patience, and unwearied with labours. Dionysius Areopagita, contemporary to the apostle St. Paul, lived ninety years; he was called the bird of heaven for his high-flying divinity, and was famous, as well for his holy life as for his meditations. Aquila and Priscilla, first St. Paul the apostle's hosts, afterwards his fellowhelpers, lived together in a happy and famous wedlock, at least to a hundred years of age apiece, for they were both alive under Pope Xistus the First; a noble pair, and prone to all kind of charity, who amongst other their comforts (which no doubt were great unto the first founders of the church) had this added, to enjoy each other so long in a happy marriage. St. Paul, the hermit, lived a hundred and thirteen years; now, he lived in a cave, his diet was so slender and strict, that it was thought almost impossible to support human nature therewithal; he passed his years only in meditations and soliloquies; yet he was not illiterate, or an idiot, but learned. Saint Anthony, the first founder of monks, or (as some will have it) the restorer only, attained to a hundred and five

« AnteriorContinuar »