v.*   '*'    ■ ■.>«*?,
l*V
         fii'-1 *• "-ON A           >'?*
        TEMPERATE LIFE,
^ with Jjdtes and an appendix,  ^
S>  BY  SYLVESTER G R Ar^ AM .  ^j 
   BY JAMES BREWER,
 DRUGGIST & BOOKSELLER,
$   TEEKSKILL, N. y.   ,
\
\
SURGEON GENERAL'S OFFICE
    LIBRARY.
        \ it*
Section.....-^*—
X.  K„.11S,   ho.%M1U1
W.D.S.G.O.                3—513 
 
 
DISCOURSES
        Mi


                     ON A

SOBER AND  TEMPERATE LIFE,


        BY LEWIS CORNARO, A Noble Venitian.

                    V
  WHEREIN IS DEMONSTRATED BY HIS OWN EXAMPLE,


               THE  METHOD

                      OF

PRESERVING HEALTH TO  EXTREME OLD AGE."


        TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN ORIGINAL.


          A  NEW EDITION CORRECTED.



                    WITH AN

  INTRODUCTION  AND  NOTES,


          Br SYLVESTER  GRAHAM.
*''  rA* ■
London:   >|t///7   £'
 M.DCC.LXXIX. •    * LJBRAR(
               NEW-YORK:   '^,__,

PRINTED  AND PUBLISHED BY  MAHL ON DAT,

                No. 37t>, Pearl-street.
1833. 
1933
  Entered according to an Act of CongresB, by Samuel
Smith, in the year 1833, in the Clerks' office of the South-
ern District of New-York.
 
CONTENTS.
                                      Page.
Original Preface,      ....    3
Editor's Introduction,  ....    9
History of Cornaro's dietetic habits—the
  destruction and recovery of his health,   15
His exhortation  and argument for a tem-
  perate life,     .....   95
His  eloquent description  of the enjoy-
  ments of old age,    ....  145
Case of an English Quaker, .    .    .  164

              APPENDIX.
The Case of Dea. Richard Cunningham,
  of New-York......165
The Case of John Linton, of Pennsyl-
  vania,     .....•  171 
  %* " Health is so necessary to  all the duties, as well
as pleasures of life, that the crime of squandering it is equal
to the folly; and he that for a short gratification  brings
weakness and diseases upon himself, and for the pleasure
of a few years, condemns  the maturer  and more  experi-
enced part of his life to the chamber and the couch, may
be justly reproached, not only as a spendthrift of his own
happiness, but as the robber of the  public,—as a  wretch
that has voluntarily disqualified himself for the business
of his station, and refused that part which Providence as-
signs him in the general task  of human  nature."—Dr.
Johnson. 
3?  IB a  U A  o a
  The  author of  the  following  discourses,
 Lewis Cornaro, was descended from one of the
 most illustrious families in Venice, but by the
 ill  conduct of some  of his relations, had the
 misfortune to be deprived of the dignity of a
nobleman, and excluded from all honors  and
 public employments  in the  state.   Chagrined
 at this unmerited disgrace, he retired to Padua,
 and married a lady of the family of Spiltem-
 berg, whose name was Veronica.   Being in
 possession of a good  estate, he was very desi-
rous of  having children; and after  a long ex-
pectation of this happiness, his wife was deliv-
ered of a daughter, to whom he gave the name
 of Clara.   This was his only child, who after-
wards was married to John, the son  of Fantini 
IV
Gornaro, of a rich family in Cyprus, while that
island  belonged to the republic  of Venice.
Though he was far advanced in life when his
daughter Clara came  into  the world, yet he
lived to  see  her very old, and the mother of
eight sons  and three  daughters.   He was a
man of sound understanding, determined cour-
age and  resolution.   In his younger days he
had contracted infirmities by intemperance, and
by indulging his too great propensity to anger;
but when he perceived the ill  consequence of
of his irregularities, he had command enough
of himself  to subdue his passion and inordinate
appetites.  By means of great sobriety,  and a
strict  regimen in  his diet, he recovered his
health and vigor, which he preserved to  an ex-
treme  old  age. At a very advanced stage of
life he wrote the following discourses, wherein
he acquaints  us with the irregularity  of his
youth, his reformation of manners,  and the
 hopes he  entertained of  living a long time.
 Nor was he mistaken in his  expectation, for
 he resigned his last breath without any  agony,
 sitting in an elbow chair,  being above an  hun-
 dred years old.  This happened at Padua, the
 26th of April, 1566.   His lady, almost as old
 as himself, survived him but a short time, and
 died an easy death.  They were both interred 
                     V

in St. Antony's church, without  any pomp,
pursuant to their testamentary directions.
  These discourses, though written in Corna-
ro's  old age, were penned at different times,
and  published  separately: the first, which he
wrote  at  the  age of eighty-three, is entitled,
" A Treatise on a Sober Life," in which he de-
clares war against every kind of intemperance ;
and  his vigorous  old  age speaks in  favor of
his precepts.  The second treatise he compo-
sed  at  the  age of eighty-six:  it contains fur-
ther encomiums on  sobriety, and points out
the means of mending a bad constitution.  He
says that  he came into the world with a chol-
eric disposition, but that his temperate way of
life had enabled him to subdue it.   The third,
which he  wrote at the  age  of ninety-one, is
entitled, " An Earnest Exhortation to a Sober
Life."  Here he uses the strongest arguments
to persuade mankind to embrace  & temperate
life, as  the  means of attaining a healthy and
vigorous  old  age.  The fourth and last, is  a
letter to Barbaro, Patriarch of Aquileia, writ-
ten at the age of ninety-five; it contains a live-
ly description of the  health, vigour, and  per-
fect use of all his faculties, which he had the
happiness of enjoying at that advanced period
of life.
                       1* 
VI
  As a proof of the merit and authenticity of
the work, we beg leave to  quote Mr. Addison's
recommendation of it,  Spectator,  Vol. iii.
No. 195.
  " The most remarkable instance of the effi-
cacy of temperance, towards the procuring long
life, is what we meet with  in a little book pub-
lished by Lewis Cornaro the  Venetian; which
I the rather mention, because it is of undoubt-
ed  credit, as the late  Venetian ambassador,
who was of the same  family, attested  more
than once in conversation, when he resided in
England.  Cornaro, who was the  author  of
the little treatise I am  mentioning, was of an
infirm constitution, till about  forty, when, by
obstinately persisting in  an  exact  course  of
temperance, he  recovered a  perfect  state  of
health; insomuch that at fourscore he publish-
his  book, which has been translated into Eng-
lish under the  title of " Sure  and certain me-
thods of attaining  a long and healthy  life.''''
He lived to give a third or fourth edition of it,
and  after having passed his  hundredth year,
died without pain or agony, and like one who
falls asleep.  The treatise I mention has been
taken notice of by several eminent  authors,
and  is written with such a spirit of cheerful- 
vii
ness, religion, and good sense, as are the na-
tural concomitants of temperance and sobriety.
The mixture of the  old man in it, is rather a
recommendation than a discredit to it." 
 
     INTRODUCTION.

 Health, I conceive, is often maintained at the expense of that vita]
power, which, in a more natural state, would have carried us to age.
                                    Thackrah.


  After an experiment of, at least, six thousand
years,  man knows about as  little how to live,
as he did in the infant period of the world.  In-
deed, there is no  subject that demands the ex-
ercise  of human intellect, which is more intri-
cate and  difficult to understand,  than is the
science of human life.  And yet  the popular
opinion is that every man can  ascertain by his
own experience, what is best for him, and how
he ought  to live : and that no general rule can
be laid down, which will be equally suitable to
all  mankind,  because there are differences of
constitution, and temperament and  predispo-
sition, &c.  " Some,"  it is said,  " with  great
regularity of habits# and temperance in diet,
enjoy good health and  live  to great age, while
others pursuing the same course, are always^sick-
ly, and die young; and on the other hand, some,
with great irregularity and intemperance, enjoy 
X.
health and live  to become very  old.   There-
fore what is  best for one man, may not be for
another, and consequently it would be impos-
sible to prescribe any mode  of living,  which
would be suitable to all  constitutions  and cir-
cumstances."
  This reasoning certainly has the aspect of
plausibility,  to  such as take but a very hasty
and superficial view of the subject.  But surely
if we will honestly investigate this matter with
a candid, and truly inquiring  mind,  we shall
see things very differently, and be led to very
different conclusions.  We shall then find the
true statements to be these :
  All men,  with a good natural constitution,
who are regular in their habits and temperate
in their diet, and in other respects correct, as
a general rule, enjoy health, and live to old age;
but some  men  with a feeble  constitution and
diseased body,  though  regular and careful in
their habits, and temperate, but not always ju-
dicious in their diet, are delicate and sickly all
their lives and  die early, or before they attain
to  old age; and would Jiave suffered much
more and died much sooner, had they been ir-
regular and  intemperate :—while  on the other
hand, some  men, with a remarkably good and
vigorous  constitution,  and  many of   whose 
XI.
habits are conducive to health  and longevity,
enjoy a considerable degree of health and  at-
tain to great age, in spite of their irregularities
and  intemperance:  nevertheless,  most per-
sons who  are  irregular and intemperate, be-
come diseased early, and die before  they reach
old age, or even the meridian of life.
  One important fact however, is very promi-
nent in the matter before us,  namely:  those
who have by any means, impaired their consti-
tution and become diseased in body, never re-
cover their health and live to be  old by irreg-
ularity of  habits and intemperance in diet;—
but when such people do recover their health,
and attain to  old age,  it  is invariably,  by the
virtues of a temperate  and correct  regimen.
Some,  it is true,  by greatly improving their
habits and diet, without ever coming up to the
most correct regimen,  greatly improve their
health, and with  a  very considerable share of
 comfort,  live to a great age, suffering always
 through  life,  inconveniences  and infirmities
 equal to the errors of their  regimen.  Such
 was the case of Cornaro.   When between thir-
 ty-five, and forty years of age, he found himself
 completely broken down  by long  excesses,
 and had in vain tried the virtues of medicine,
 till he began to despair of ever being any bet- 
XII.
ter,  and saw that there was no possible relief
for him but in a salutary regimen, he made a
very great improvement in his habits and diet,
and, considering the period in which he  lived,
and, the prevailing opinions of those times,  it
can hardly be a matter of surprise, that the re-
gimen which he adopted,  was not more per-
fectly consistent with those constitutional laws
of life, upon which permanent health and lon-
gevity depend.  Instead of eating promiscu-
ously,  and to excess whatever was gratifying
to his palate, he limited himself to twelve oun-
ces of select food per day; and instead of drink-
ing wine promiscuously and  excessively, he
limited himself to fourteen ounces per day, of
a mild annual wine.  The improvement there-
fore, which Cornaro made in his diet, was prin-
cipally in quantity ; and this was a very impor-
tant improvement to him, and especially when
connected with the great improvements which
he made in his habits in other respects.  His
system was very greatly relieved by  it,  from
irritating and disordering  causes; and  much
as it had suffered from former excesses, and
irregularities,  it still  had  renovating  power
enough to rise, under  the comparatively small
remaining weight of oppression,  to a conside-
rable degree of health.  But had  that oppres- 
XIII.
sion been entirely thrown  off, had no portion
of the wine been  retained,  and had the  quali-
ties of his food been in all respects more con-
sistent with sound physiological principles,  he
would not only have recovered a more perfect
state of health, and, beyond all question, have
lived many years longer, but he would entire-
ly have  escaped  those  yearly depressions of
health and strength, in which he almost sunk
into the grave.  For be it  remembered, that
with all the advantages of his  regimen,  and
with all the health and  cheerfulness of  which
he speaks, Cornaro went through life with a
delicate and susceptible body : while many oth-
ers by a more entire reformation, and  under a
regimen more perfect, have recovered at a later
period in life,  from a  more impaired  state of
health, and become much more robust and vig-
orous and active, and attained to  greater  age
than he did.   Many individuals indeed,  in im-
paired health,  by adopting Cornaro's  regimen,
instead  of recovering health by it, would only
hasten themselves out of the world :—and this
is not owing to the fact that " what is good for
one man is not for another,'''' but to  the fact
that some can rise under a weight which will
crush others.  Deeply interesting and  truly
valuable, therefore, as the  following  work in 
XIV.
many respects is,  yet it is very questionable
whether, if sent forth to the world at the pre-
sent day, without "note or comment," it would
not do far more mischief than good to man-
kind.   That the reader may have all the  ben-
efits of its excellencies without being endanger-
ed by its errors,  this short introduction, and
the following notes are  added  to  the present
edition of this work; with the most fervent
desire that the perusal of the following pages
may greatly serve to promote  the health and
virtue and permanent happiness of every rea-
der, and cheer the declining years  of many an
aged individual.
  New-York, March, 1833. 
             A

     TREATISE

           ON A

SOBER   LIFE.
  It is  a thing past all  doubt, that
custom, by time,  becomes a  second
nature, forcing men to use that, whe-
ther good or bad, to which they have
been habituated: nay, we see habit,
in many things, get the better of rea-
son.  This is so undeniably true, that
virtuous men, by conversing with the
wicked, very often fall into the same
vicious course of life.  The contrary,
likewise, we see sometimes happen;
viz. that, as good morals easily change 
16
to bad, so  bad morals change again
to good.  For instance: let a wicked
man, who was once  virtuous, keep
company with a virtuous man,  and he
will again become virtuous; and  this
alteration can be attributed to nothing
but the force of habit, which is,  in-
deed, very great.  Seeing many  ex-
amples of this; and besides, consider-
ing that, in consequence of this great
force of habit, three bad customs have
got footing in Italy within a few years,
even within my own memory ; the first
flattery  and   ceremoniousness;  the
second   Lutheranism,*  which some
have most preposterously embraced ;
the third intemperance.  And  that
  * The author writes with the prejudice of a
zealous  Roman Catholic against the  doctrine
the  Reformation, which he here distinguishes
by the name of Lutheranism. This was owing
to the artifices of the Romish clergy in those
days, by whom the reformed religion was  mis-
represented, as  introductive  of licentiousness
and debauchery. 
17
these three vices, like  so many cruel
monsters, leagued, as indeed they are,
against mankind, have  gradually pre-
vailed so far, as to rob civil life of its
sincerity, the soul of its piety, and the
body of its health: I have resolved to
treat of the last of these  vices, and
prove that it is an abuse, in order to
extirpate it, if possible.  As  to  the
second,  Lutheranism,  and   the  first,
flattery, I am certain, that some great
genius or another will soon  undertake
the task of exposing their  deformity,
and   effectually  suppressing   them.
Therefore, I firmly hope, that, before
I die, I shall see these three  abuses
conquered and driven out of Italy;
and  this country of course restored
to its former laudable and virtuous
customs.
   To come  then to that  abuse, of
which  I  have  proposed  to  speak,
namely, intemperance; I say, that it
               2# 
18
is a great pity it should have prevail-
ed so much, as entirely to banish so-
briety.  Though all  are agreed, that
intemperance is the offspring of glut-
tony, and  sober living of abstemious-
ness;  the former, nevertheless, is con-
sidered as a virtue and a mark of dis-
tinction, and the latter, as  dishonora-
ble and the badge of avarice.  Such
mistaken  notions are entirely owing
to the power of custom, established
by our senses and irregular appetites;
these  have blinded and  besotted men
to such a  degree, that, leaving the
paths  of virtue, they have  followed
those of vice, which lead them before
their time  to an  old age, burdened
with strange and  mortal  infirmities,
so as to render them quite decrepid
before forty, contrary to the effects of
sobriety, which, before it was banish-
ed by this  destructive intemperance,
used to keep men sound and hearty 
19
to the age of eighty and upwards.  0
wretched and unhappy Italy!  do not
you  see, that intemperance murders
every year more of your subjects, than
you  could lose  by the most  cruel
plague, or by fire and sword in many
battles ?  Those truly shameful feasts,
now so much in fashion, and so intol-
erably  profuse,  that  no tables  are
large enough to hold the dishes, which
renders it  necessary to heap them
one upon another; those feasts, I say,
are  so many battles:  and  how is it
possible to support nature by such a
variety of contrary and unwholesome
foods?  Put a stop to this abuse,  for
God's sake, for there is not, I am cer-
tain  of it,  a vice more abominable
than this in the  eyes of the  Divine
Majesty.   Drive away this  new kind
of death, as you  have  banished the
plague, which, though it formerly used
to make such havoc, now does littte 
20
 or no mischief, owing to the laudable
 practice  of attending  more  to the
 goodness of the provisions brought to
 our  markets.  There are meajis still
 still  left to banish intemperance, and
 such means too, that  every man may
 have recourse to them  without any
 assistance.  JNothing  more is requi-
 site for this purpose, than to live up
 to the  simplicity dictated by nature,
 which  teaches us to be content with
 little, to  pursue  the medium of holy
 abstemiousness  and  divine  reason,
 and  to accustom ourselves to eat no
 more than is absolutely necessary to
 to support life; considering, that what
 exceeds this, is disease  and  death,
 and merely  gives the palate a satis-
faction, which, though but momenta-
ry, brings on  the  body a long and
lasting train  of disagreeable  sensa-
tions and diseases, and at length des-
troys it along with the soul.   How 
21
many friends of mine, men of the finest
understanding and most amiable dis-
position, have I seen carried off by
this  plague in the  flower  of  their
youth ?  who, were  they now living,
would be an ornament to the public,
and  whose company I should  enjoy
with as much pleasure, as  I now feel
concern at their loss.
  In order, therefore, to put a stop to
so great an evil, I have resolved by
this  short discourse to demonstrate,
that intemperance is an abuse which
may be easily removed, and that the
good old sober living may be subtitu-
ted in its stead ; and this I undertake
the more readily, as many young men
of the best understanding, knowing
that it is a vice, have  requested it of
me,  moved thereto by seeing  their
fathers drop off in the flower of their
youth, and me so sound and hearty at
the age of eighty-one. They express- 
22
a desire to reach the same term, na-
ture not forbidding us to wish for lon-
gevity; and old age being, in fact the
time of life in which prudence can be
best exercised, and the fruits of  all
the other virtues enjoyed with less
opposition, the passions being then so
subdued, that  man gives himself up
entirely to reason.   They beseeched
me to let them know the method pur-
sued by  me to attain  it; and then
finding them intent on so laudable a
pursuit, I have resolved to  treat of
that method, in order to  be of service
not only to them, but to all those who
may be willing to  peruse  this dis-
course.   1 shall, therefore, give my
reasons for renouncing intemperance,
and betaking myself to a sober course
of life; declare freely the method pur-
sued by me for that purpose; and then
set forth  the  effects of so good  an
habit  upon me;  whence it  may  be 
23
 clearly gathered, how easy it is to re-

 move the abuse of intemperance.  I
 shall conclude, by showing how many
 conveniencies and blessings are  the
 consequences of a sober life.
   I say then, that the heavy train of
 infirmities, which had  not only inva-
 ded, but even made great inroads in
 my constitution, were my motives for
 renouncing intemperance, to which I
 had been greatly addicted;  so that,
 in consequence  of it, and the badness
 of my constitution, my stomach being
 exceedingly cold  and moist,*  I was


  * It is  of considerable importance, that the
reader of this book should fully understand
that Cornaro had very crude and incorrect no-
tions of physiology and pathology. Little res-
pect is therefore to be paid to his reasonings
on these subjects.  His facts concerning his
health, symptoms, and regimen, are of very
great importance; but when he attempts to as-
sign physiological causes, or describe patholo-
gical effects, he is governed by the crude theo-
ries of his day, and is often very incorrect. His
notions of an " exceedingly  cold  and  moist 
24
fallen into different kinds of disorders,
such as pains in my stomach, and of-
ten stitches, and spices of the  gout;
attended by, what was still worse, an
almost continual slow fever, a stomach
generally out of order, and a perpet-
ual thirst.   From these natural and
acquired disorders, the best delivery
I had  to hope for was death, to put
an  end to the pains and miseries of
life; a period very remote in the re-
gular course of nature, though I had
hastened  it by my irregular  manner
of living.   Finding myself, therefore,
in such  unhappy circumstances be-
tween my thirty-fifth and fortieth year,
every thing that  could be thought of
having been tried to no purpose  to

stomach," might answer for the humoral pa-
thologists of the  sixteenth  century,  and they
may suit the purposes of the brandy and tobac-
co lovers of the present day, but they are in
reality altogether erroneous. 
25
relieve me, the physicians gave me to
understand, that there was but one
method left to  get the better of my
complaints, provided I would resolve
to use it, and  patiently persevere in
it.  This  was a  sober and  regular
life, which they assured me would be
still of the greatest service to  me, and
would be as powerful in its effects, as
the intemperate and irregular one had
been, in  reducing me  to the  present
low condition: and  that I might be
fully  satisfied  of its salutary effects,
for though by my irregularities I was
become infirm, I  was not reduced so
low, but that a  temperate life, the
opposite in every respect to an intem-
perate one, might still  entirely recov-
er me.  And besides,  it in fact ap-
pears, such a regular life, whilst ob-
served, preserves men  of a bad  con-
stitution, and far gone in years, just as
a contrary course has the power to.
                  3 
26
destroy those of the best constitution,
and in their prime; for this plain rea-
son,  that different modes  of life are
attended by different effects; are fol-
lowing, even herein, the steps of na-
ture, with equal power to correct nat-
ural vices  and  imperfections.  This
is obvious in husbandry and the like.
They added, that if I did not immedi-
ately  have  recourse to  such  a regi-
men, I could receive no benefit from
it in a few months,  and  that in  a few
more  I must resign myself to death.
  These solid and convincing  argu-
ments  made such  an impression on
me, that, mortified  as  I  was besides,
by the thoughts of dying in the prime
of life, and at the same time perpetu-
ally tormented by various diseases, I
immediately concluded, that the fore-
going contrary effects could  not be
produced but by contrary modes of
living; and, therefore, full of hopes, 
27
resolved, in order to  avoid at once
both death and  disease, to  betake
myself to  a regular  course  of life.
Having, upon this, inquired of them
what rules I should follow, they told
me, that 1 must not use any food, solid
or liquid, but such as, being generally
prescribed to sick persons, is,  for that
reason,  called diet,  and both very
sparingly.   These directions,  to  say
the truth, they had  before given me;
but it was at a time of life when, impa-
tient of such  restraint, and  finding
myself satiated, as it were, with such
food, I could not put up with  it, and
therefore eat freely of every  thing I
liked best; and likewise,  feeling my-
self in a  manner  parched up by the
heat of my  disease, made no scruple
of  drinking, and in large quantities,
the wines that best pleased my palate.
This indeed, like  all  other patients, I
kept  a  secret from  my  physicians. 
28
But, when I had once resolved to live
sparingly, and according to the dic-
tates of reason,  seeing that it was no
difficult matter, nay, that it was my
duty as a man so to do, I entered with
so much resolution  upon  this  new
course of life, that nothing has been
since  able to divert me from it.   The
consequence was, that in a few days
I began to perceive, that such a course
agreed with me very well; and by
pursuing it, in less than a year, I found
myself (some persons, perhaps, will
not believe it) entirely freed from all
my complaints.
   Having thus  recoverd my health,
1  began seriously  to consider  the
power of temperance, and say to my-
self, that if this virtue  had  efficacy
enough to subdue such  grievous dis-
orders as mine, it must have still great-
 er to  preserve  me in  health, to help
 my bad constitution, and comfort my 
29
very weak stomach*   I therefore ap-

plied  myself diligently  to discover

what kinds  of food suited  me best.

But, first, I resolved to  try, whether

those,  which  pleased   my  palate,

agreed or disagreed with my stomach,

in order to judge  for  myself of  the
truth of that  proverb,  which I once
held for true, and is universally held

  *  This is one of the most important senti-
ments  in the whole book :—for notwithstand-
ing the perverse and  pertinacious error of the
professional  and non-professional world, to
the contrary, backed as they are, by the au-
thority of medical speculators for more  than
two thousand years, it is nevertheless demon-
strably true that that temperance whose virtue
is most  efficacious in restoring the  diseased
body to health, is also best,  to preserve health
in those that are well.  And until mankind are
convinced of the truth of this doctrine,  and
practically adopt it, they cannot justly expect
any improvement in the condition of  the race,
in relation to disease and  premature  death,
though medical science be carried to the top of
human capabilities, and druggists  become as
numerous as the venders of alcoholic liquors,
and  specific-mongers as multitudinous as the
frogs that plagued Egypt.
                    3* 
30
 as such in the highest degree, inso-
 much-that epicures, who give a loose
 to their appetites, lay it down as  a
 fundamental  maxim.   This proverb
 is, that whatever pleases  the palate,
 must agree  with the  stomach, and
 nourish the body; or whatever is pal-
 atable must be equally wholesome and
 nourishing.   The issue was,  that  I
 found it to be false : for, though rough
 and  very cold wines, as likewise mel-
 ons and other fruits,  sallad, fish and
 pork, tarts, garden-stuff,  pastry, and
 the like, were very pleasing  to  my
 palate, they  disagreed  with me not-
 withstanding.   Having thus convin-
 ced myself, that the proverb in ques-
 tion was false, I loo'k'd upon it as such;
 and, taught by experience, I gave over
the use of such meats and wines, and
likewise of ice; chose wine suited to
my  stomach,  drinking of it  but the 
31
quantity I  knew 1 could  digest.*   I
did the  same by my  meat,  as well in


  * "Whatever pleases the palate, must agree
with  the  stomach  and  nourish  the  body!"
This lying proverb is  older than the Christian
Religion, and has sent millions of human be-
ings thro'  years of misery to an  early grave.
In an unimpaired and uncontaminated state of
the human body, the converse of this proposition
is strictly  true,—viz : whatever agrees with the
stomach and nourishes the  body,  pleases the
palate.  But  let it ever be remembered that
the palate may be educated to any  thing; so
that things in themselves the most loathsome
and abominable, and  the most  deleterious to
the body,  may  be- made very pleasing to the
palate.  Nay indeed, the palate may be taught
to find its highest zest in things which are the
most pernicious to the body.  All this, the ex-
perience and  sagacity of Cornaro fully ascer-
tained :—and yet through  his  whole life,  he
was not able to discern the equally  important
truth, that the  stomach  as well as  the palate
may be educated  to any  thing; and therefore
the  fact,  that this or that article  of diet does
or does not, at  present agree with the stomach,
is no proof of its good or bad qualities, in re-
lation to the ultimate  purposes of the organic
economy.   We may easily train our stomachs
into a condition in which very pernicious sub-
stances shall agree with them, so  long as they
are in that condition, much  better than the 
32
 regard to quantity  as to  quality, ac-

 customing myself never  to  cloy my


 most healthy aliment:  and this evil may  be
 carried to such an extent,  that  it is very diffi-
 cult to bring the stomach back into that condi-
 tion, in which the best  food shall  agree best
 with it, without  much suffering  and  sickness.
 I have  known persons who could not eat a sin-
 gle meal of pure healthy  food,  unmixed with
 deleterious substances, without  actually  caus-
 ing sickness :—but shall such persons therefore
 lay the fault to the food rather than to the con-
 dition of their stomach, and conclude that the
 pernicious substances are  best   for   them, be-
 cause they  agree best with their stomach?  If
 they do,  they err most dangerously, and sow
 the seeds which, sooner or later will yield them,
 and perhaps their posterity to  the  third and
 fourth  generations, abundant fruits of exceed-
 ingly grievous, if not intolerable bitterness.
  Cornaro's stomach had  been broken  down
 by excesses and  erroneous diet, and like  all
 other stomachs in that condition, was unfit  to
be consulted, as to what agreed or did not agree
 with it.  Reason founded  on a correct knowl-
edge of things should govern us  in matters  of
 this kind.  "Melons  and  other fruits"  under
 proper regulations, as to  time  and quantity,
 always agree with the human  stomach in a
natural and healthy state.   If therefore they
did not  agree with  Cornaro's  stomach, the
organ was at fault, and not the fruit; and had 
33
stomach with eating or drinking; but

constantly  rise from table with a dis-


he taken the  best course, instead of  rejecting
the fruit, he would have brought his  stomach
to that condition in which it would have receiv-
ed  the  fruit  pleasanthy, which might easily
have been done.  When he talks about  what
wines agreed with his stomach, he  talks the
same  language  that the world is full of.  The
incontrovertible truth—which  every  man  of
sense should blush to question—is that no wine
nor alcohol in any form, agrees with the hu-
man stomach in a natural  and  healthy condi-
tion ;  and no training can   make it  so  agree
with the stomach, as to render its habitual use
beneficial to that organ and to the body.  Cor-
naro's stomach  had  become so much impaired
by former excesses,  that it could  no longer
bear the more powerful stimulation of old and
strong wines, and  therefore the new annual
wines which  were  comparatively weak,  were
more tolerable to his stomach  than  the old :
and, greatly curtailing his  quantity in this,  as
well as systematically regulating his  diet and
habits in other respects, his stomach  and his
whole system, recovered health and  strength
to a wonderful degree, in spite  of the disad-
vantage of his remaining 14 ounces of wine per
day, and some other minor errors in his regimen.
   Yet notwithstanding, with all the benefits  of
his reformed  system, and the great age to which
he attained by  it,  Cornaro went through life 
34
position to eat and drink  still  more.
In  this I conformed  to the  proverb,


with an artificial stomach, which was continu-
ally evincing its want of integrity, through the
fault of its artificial  means of tone  and stimu-
lation.   His wine, instead of benefiting him in
any degree,  was a source of debility and suf-
fering to him through life; and  annually sunk
him so low as to threaten  the  termination of
his bodily existence.
  Had he, at the commencement of his reform-
ation, entirely banished wine from his diet, and
drank  nothing  but pure  water,  he  M'ould
beyond all  question have wholly escaped his
yearly depressions of health, and stood a bet-
ter chance to live a hundred and ten or twenty
years, than he did  to  live a hundred,  on the
regimen which he adopted.  Let no one there-
fore, under the fallacious impression that Cor-
naro lived  the  longer for his  wine,  seek to
prolong life by the use of that deleterious bev-
erage.   "Water is  the only fitting drink for
man."   In his use of soups, also, Cornaro run
into a too prevalent error.   In sickness  and
in health, soups of every kind are  among the
very worst forms in which human food can be
prepared.  As  a general  rule, that form of
food which requires the most full and delibe-
rate mastication, is decidedly the most condu-
cive to health and long life.  His use of flesh
was so limited and systematic, that his  health
was probably not much  if any impaired by it, 
35
which says, that a man, to consult his
health, must check his appetite. Hav-
ing in this manner, and for these rea-
sons,  conquered  intemperance and
irregularity, I betook myself entirely
to a temperate and regular life: which
effected in me the  alteration already
mentioned, that is, in less than a year
it rid me of all those disorders which
had taken so deep a root in me ; nay,
as I have already observed, had made
such a progress, as to be in a manner


though his life was by no means prolonged by it.
It is worthy of remark, that as he advanced in
life, and diminished the proportion of  his flesh
and  wine, and subsisted more on vegetable
food, his health became more  established and
uniform, and his mind more  cheerful. Had
he, at the commencement of his reformation,
adopted a diet of well-chosen  vegetable food,
with pure water, he would  undoubtedly have
escaped most, or all of his subsequent sickness
and infirmities, and lived ten or  twenty years
longer.  It was to the correctness of his regi-
men in quantity rather than in quality, that
Lewis Cornaro owed his long life. 
                36

incurable.  It had likewise this other
good  effect, that I no longer  experi-
enced those  annual  fits of sickness,
with  which I used  to be afflicted,
while I followed a different, that is
a sensual course of life; for  then  I
used to be attacked  every year with
a strange kind of fever, which some-
times brought me  to  death's door.
From this disease then, I also freed
myself, and  became  exceeding heal-
thy, as 1 have continued from  that
time  forward to  this very day;  and
for no other reason than that I never
trespassed against regularity, which
by  its infinite efficacy has been the
cause, that the meat  I constantly eat,
and the wine I constantly drank, be-
ing such as agreed with my constitu-
tion, and  taken in proper quantities,
imparted all their virtue to my body,
and then left it without difficulty, and 
37
without engendering  in it any  bad
humours.
  In consequence  therefore of my
taking such methods,  I  have always
enjoyed, and (God be  praised) ac-
tually enjoy, the best of healths. It
is true, indeed, that, besides the two
foregoing most important  rules rela-
tive to eating and drinking, which 1
have ever  been very scrupulous  to
observe; that is, not to take of any
thing,  but  as  much as  my stomach
can easily digest, and  to  use  those
things only, which agree with me;  I
have  carefully avoided heat,  cold,
and extraordinary  fatigue,  interrup-
tion of my usual  hours of rest, ex-
cessive venery, making any stay  in
bad air, and exposing myself to the
wind and sun;  for these, too, are great
disorders.  But then, fortunately, there
is no great  difficulty in avoiding them,
the love of life  and health having more
                 4 
38
sway over men of understanding, than
any  satisfaction they could find in
doing what must be extremely hurtful
to their constitution.  I have likewise
done all that lay in my power to avoid
those evils, which we do not find so
easy  to  remove; these are  melan-
choly, hatred, and other violent pas-
sions, which appear to have the great-
est influence over our bodies.   How-
ever, 1 have not been  able to guard so
well  against either one or the other
kind of those disorders, as not to  suf-
fer myself now and then to be hurried
away by many, not to  say, all of them;
but I have reaped the benefit of know-
ing by experience that these passions
have in the main, no great influence
over bodies governed  by the two fore-
going rules of  eating and drinking,
and  therefore can do them but very
little harm; so that it may with great
truth be affirmed, that  whoever ob- 
39
serves these two  capital  rules, is
liable  to  very little  inconveniency
from any other excesses. This, Galen,
who was  an eminent physician, ob-
served before me.  He affirms, that
so long as he followed these rules re-
lative to eating and drinking, he suf-
fered but little from other disorders,
so little, that they  never gave him
above a day's uneasiness. That what
he says is true, I am a living witness,
and  so are  many others, who know
me, and have seen, how often I have
been exposed to heats and colds, and
such other  disagreeable changes of
weather;  and have,  likewise, seen
me (owing  to various  misfortunes,
which  have more than once befallen
me) greatly  disturbed in mind.  For
they can not only say of me, that such
disturbance  of mind has done me very
little harm, but they can aver, of ma-
ny others, who did not lead a sober 
40
and regular life, that it proved very
prejudicial  to  them,  amongst whom
was a brother of my own, and others
of my family, who trusting to the good-
ness of their constitution, did not fol-
low  my way of living.  The conse-
quence hereof was a great misfortune
to them, the perturbations of the mind
having thereby acquired an extraor-
dinary influence  over  their bodies.
Such, in a  word,  was their grief and
dejection at  seeing  me involved in
expensive law suits, commenced a-
gainst me by great and powerful men,
that, fearing 1 should be cast, they
were seized with  that melancholy hu-
mour, with which intemperate bodies
always  abound;  and these humours
had such an influence over them, and
increased to such a degree, as to car-
ry them off before their time; whereas
1 suffered nothing on the occasion, as
 1 had in me no superfluous humours 
41
of that kind.*   Nay, in order to keep

up my spirits,  I  brought  myself  to

think, that God had  raised up these

suits asainst me, in order to make me
more sensible of my strength of body

and mind; and  that I should get the
better of them with honour and ad-

vantage, as it, in fact, came to pass:

for, at last,  I  obtained  a decree ex-
ceeding favourable to my fortune and
my  character, which, though  it gave

me the highest pleasure, had  not the

power to  do me any  harm in  other

respects.  Thus it is  plain, that nei-

   *  " The  human  body," says Hippocrates,
" contains  four humours, very different with
respect to heat and cold, moisture and dryness,
viz. :_blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black
bile. Health consists in a due mixture of these
four, and whatever  produces  a redundancy in
any of them, does hurt." This is the foundation
of humoral pathology, which  even at the pre-
sent day, has some  credit among a part of  the
medical fraternity.  The system is not wholly-
destitute of truth; but Cornaro's  allusion* to
it, savour more of pedantry than of fcience.
                  4* 
42
ther melancholy nor any other affec-
tion of the mind can  hurt bodies go-
verned with temperance and  regu-
larity.
  But I must go a step further,  and
say, that even misfortunes themselves
can do but  very  little  mischief, or
cause but very little pain to such bo-
dies;  and that this is true, I have my-
self experienced at the age of seventy.
I happened,  as is often the case, to be
in a coach, which going at a  pretty
smart rate, was overset, and in  that
condition drawn a considerable way
by  the horses, before means could be
found to stop them; whence I received
so  many shocks  and  bruises,  that  1
was taken out with my head and all
the rest of my body terribly battered,
and a dislocated leg and arm.  When
I was  brought  home, the  family im-
mediately sent fpr the physicians,
who, on their arrival, seeing me in so 
43
bad a plight, concluded that within
three daysl should die; nevertheless,
they would try what good two things
would do me;  one was to bleed me,
the other was to purge me; and there-
by prevent my  humours altering,  as
they every moment expected, to such
a degree, as to  ferment greatly, and
bring on a high fever.   But 1, on the
contrary, who  knew, that the sober
life I had led for many years past, had
so well united, harmonized, and dis-
posed my humours, as not to leave it
in their  power  to ferment to such a
degree, refused to be either bled  or
purged.*  I just caused my leg and
arm to be set, and suffered myself  to
be rubbed with some oils, which they
said were proper  on  the  occasion.
Thus, without using any other kind of
remedy,  I recovered, as I thought I
* See Note page 41. 
44
should, without feeling the least alter-
ation  in myself, or any other bad ef-
fects from the accident; a thing, which
appeared miraculous even in the eyes
of the physicians.  Hence we are to
infer, that whoever leads a sober and
regular life, and commits no excess in
his diet, can suffer but very little from
disorders of any other kind, or exter-
nal  accidents.   On  the  contrary,  I
conclude,  especially from the  late
trial I have had, that excesses in eat-
ing  and drinking are fatal.   Of this I
convinced myself four years ago, when
by the advice of my  physicians, the
instigation of my friends, and the im-
portunity of my own family,  1  con-
sented to such an excess, which, as it
will appear hereafter, was attended
with  far  worse  consequences than
could naturally  be expected.  This
excess consisted in  increasing   the
quantity of food I generally made  use 
45
of;  which increase alone brought on
me  a most cruel fit of sickness.  And
as it is a case so much in point to the
subject in  hand, and  the knowledge
of  it may be useful  to  some of my
readers, I shall take the trouble to re-
late it.
  I say, then, that my dearest friends
and relations, actuated by  the warm
and laudable  affection  and regard
they have for me,  seeing how little I
eat, represented to me, in conjunction
with  my physicians, that the suste-
nance I took could not be sufficient to
support one so far advanced in years,
when  it was  become necessary not
only  to preserve  nature, but to in-
crease its vigour.  That, as this could
not be done without food,  it was ab-
solutely incumbent upon me to eat a
little  more plentifully. I on the other
hand, produced  my reasons for  not
complying with their desires. These 
46
were, that nature is content with lit-
tle, and that with this little I had pre-
served myself so  many years; and
that, to me, the habit of it was become
a second nature; and that it was more
agreeable to reason, that, as I advan-
ced in years and lost my strength, I
should rather lessen than increase the
quantity of my food.  Farther,  that it
was  but  natural to think, that  the
powers of the stomach  grew weaker
from day to  day; on which account
I could see  no reason  to make such
an addition.   To corroborate my ar-
guments,  1 aliedged those two natural
and very  true proverbs; one, that he,
who has  a mind to eat a great deal,
must eat   but little;  which  is said
for no other reason than this, that eat-
ing little makes a man live  very long;
and  living very  long he must eat a
great deal.  The other proverb was,
that what we leave  after making  a 
47
hearty meal, does us more good than
what we have eat.  But neither these
proverbs,  nor any other arguments I
could think of, were able to prevent
their  teasing me  more  than  ever.
Wherefore, not to appear obstinate,
or affect to know more than the phy-
sicians themselves; but, above all, to
please my family, who very earnestly
desired it, from a persuasion that such
an addition  to my  usual allowance
would  preserve my strength, I  con-
sented to increase  the quantity of
food, but  with two ounces only.   So
that, as before, what with bread, meat,
 the yolk of an egg, and soup, I eat as
 much, as weighed in all twelve ounces,
 neither more nor less, I now increased
 it to fourteen; and as before I drank
 but fourteen ounces of wine, I now in-
 creased it to sixteen.  This increase
 and  irregularity had, in  eight  days
 time, such an effect upon  me, that, 
48
from being cheerful and brisk, I be-
gan to be peevish and melancholy, so
that nothing  could  please  me; and
was constantly so strangely disposed,
that I neither knew what  to say to
others, nor what to  do  with myself
On the  twelfth day, I  was attacked
with a most violent pain in  my side,
which held me twenty-two hours, and
was succeeded by a terrible fever,
which continued thirty-five days and
as many nights, without giving me a
moment's respite; though, to say the
truth, it  began to abate gradually on
the fifteenth.  But  natwithstanding
such abatement, I could  not, during
the whole  time, sleepr half a quarter
of an hour  together, insomuch  that
every one  looked upon  me as a dead
man. But, God be praised, I recover-
ed  merely by  my  former  regular
course of  life, though  then in  my
seventy-eighth year, and in the cold- 
49
 est season of a very cold year, and
 reduced to  a mere  skeleton;  and I
 am positive that it was the great re-
 gularity  I had observed for so many
 years,  and that only, which rescued
 me from the  jaws of death.*   In all
 that time I never knew what sickness
 was, unless I may call by that name
 some slight indisposition of a day or
 two's continuance; the  regular life I
 had led, as I have already taken no-
 tice, for  so many years,  not having
 permitted any superfluous or bad hu-
 mours to breed in me;  or if they did,
 to  acquire  such strength and malig-
nity, as they generally acquire in the
superanuated  bodies of those,  who
live without rule.   And as there was

  * Had Cornaro's reformed  diet  been only
vegetables and water, he would not have suffer-
ed this sickness from his two ounces increase
of food and drink, though an excess of aliment
might have become inconvenient, and caused
a sense of fullness and heaviness.
5 
50
not any old  malignity in my humors
(which is the thing that kills people,)
but only that, which  my new  irregu-
larity had occasioned, this fit of sick-
ness, though exceeding violent,  had
not strength enough to destroy me.
This  it was, and nothing else,  that
saved my life; whence may be gath-
ered,  how  great is  the  power  and
efficacy of regularity; and how great,
likewise, is that of irregularity, which
in a few days could  bring  on  me so
terrible a fit of sickness, just as regu-
larity had preserved me in health for
so many years.
  And it appears to me a no weak ar-
gument, that, since the world, consist-
ing of the four elements, is upheld by
order; and our life,  as to the body,
is no other than an harmonious com-
bination of the same four elements, so
it should be preserved and maintained
by the very same order;  and, on  the 
51
other hand, it must be worn out by
sickness,  or  destroyed   by  death,
which are produced by the contrary
effects.  By order, the arts are more
easily learned;  by order, armies are
rendered victorious; by order,  in  a
word, families, cities, and even states
are maintained.  Hence I concluded,
that orderly living  is no  other than a
most certain cause and foundation of
health and long  life; nay I  cannot
help saying,  that it  is  the only and
true  medicine; and  whoever weighs
the matter  well, must also conclude,
that this is  really the case.  Hence it
 is, that Avhen a physician comes  to
 visit a patient, the first thing  he pre-
 scribes, is to live regularly.  In like
 manner, when a physician takes leave
 of a patient, on his being recovered,
 he advises him,  as he  tenders his
 health, to lead a regular  life.   And
 it is not to be doubted,  that, were a 
52
 patient so recovered to live in  that
 manner,  he  could  never  be  sick
 again, as it  removes every cause of
 illness;  and so, for the  future, would
 never want either physician or physic.
 Nay, by attending duly to what I have
 said, he would become  his  own phy-
 sician, and, indeed, the  best he could
 have; since, in fact, no  man can be a
 perfect physician to any one but him-
 self.  The reason of which is, that any
 man may, by repeated trials, acquire a
 perfect knowledge of his own consti-
 tution, and the most hidden qualities
 of his body;  and what wine and food
 agree with his stomach.*   Now, it is

  * He may in  this way, easily ascertain what
will agree with  his stomach, because  he  can
train his stomach to agree with any thing ; but
it is by no means an easy matter to find out in
this way, what agrees best with the body, con-
sistently  with those principles  of health on
which longevity depends.  The whole system
of governing the head by the stomach,  instead
of governing the stomach by the head, is ut- 
53
so far from being  an easy matter to
know  these  things  perfectly  of an-
other, that we cannot without  much
trouble  discover them  in ourselves,
since a great deal of time and repeat-
ed trials  are requisite  for that pur-
pose.
   These trials are, indeed, (if I may
say it) more  than necessary, as there
is a greater variety in the natures and
constitutions of different men,  than in
their persons.   Who could believe,
that old wine,  wine that had  passed
its first year, should disagree with my
stomach, and new wine agree with it?
and  that  pepper,  which  is  looked

terly wrong. Make your stomach the health-
ful minister  of the body,  and not the whole
body the mere  locomotive appendage of your
stomach.  Treat  your stomach like a well
governed child ; carefully find out what is best
for it, as the digestive organ of your body, and
then teach it to conform to your regimen, and
soon its habitude will become what is common-
ly called nature.
                  5* 
54
 upon  as  a warm  spice, should  not
 have a warm effect upon  me, inso-
 much that I find myself more warmed
 and comforted by cinnamon ?* Where
 is the  physician, that could have in-
 formed me of these two latent quali-
 ties, since 1 myself,  even by a long
 codrse of observation, could  scarce
 discover them?  From all these rea-
 sons it follows, that it is  impossible
 to be a perfect physician to another.
 Since,  therefore, a man cannot have
 a better  physician  than himself,  nor
 any physic better than a regular life,
 a regular life he ought to embrace.
  1 do  not, however,  mean, that, for
 the knowledge and cure of such dis-
 orders, as often befal  those who do
 not live regularly,  there is no occa-
 sion for a physician,  and that his as-
sistance ought  to be slighted.  For,

  * Both are pernicious, habitually used. 
55
if  we  are  apt  to receive such great
comfort from friends, who come to
visit us in  our illness,- though they
do no more than testify their concern
for us, and  bid  us be of good cheer;
how much more regard ought we to
have for the physician, who is a friend
that comes to see us in  order  to  re-
lieve us, and  promises  us  a  cure?
But for the bare purpose of keeping
ourselves in  good  health,  1 am of
opinion, that we should consider as a
physician this regular life, which, as
we have seen, is our natural and prop-
er physic, since it preserves men, even
those of a bad constitution, in health;
makes them live sound and  hearty to
the age of one hundred and upwards;
and prevents their dying of sickness,
or through a corruption of their hu-
mors, but merely  by a dissolution of
their radical moisture, when quite ex-
hausted;   all which effects  several 
56
wise men have attributed  to potable
gold, and  the elixir, sought for by
many, but discovered by few.  How-
ever  to confess the truth, men, for
the most part, are very  sensual  and
intemperate, and love to satisfy their
appetites, and  to commit every  ex-
cess ; therefore, seeing that they can-
not avoid being  greatly  injured by
such excess, as often as they are guilty
of it, they, by way of apologizing for
their conduct, say, that it  is better to
live ten years less,  and enjoy them-
selves; not considering, of what im-
portance are ten years  more of life,
especially a  healthy life, and at  a
maturerage; when men become sen-
sible of their progress in  knowledge
and virtue, which cannot attain to any
degree of perfection before  this pe-
riod of life.
   Not to speak,  at  present, of many
other advantages, I shall barely men- 
57
tion that in regard to letters  and the
sciences;  far the greatest number of
the best and  most  celebrated  books
extant, were written during  that pe-
riod  of  life, and  those ten  years,
which some make it  their business to
undervalue, in order to give a  loose
to their appetites.   Be that  as it
will, I would  not  act like  them.  1
rather coveted to live these ten years,
and, had 1 not done so, I should never
have finished those tracts, which  I
have composed in  consequence of
my having been  sound and  hearty
these ten years past;  and  which  1
have the pleasure  to think will be of
service to others.  These sensualists
add, that a regular  life is such as no
man  can  lead.    To this  I  answer,
Galen,  who was so great a physician,
led such  a  life, and chose it as the
best  physic.  The  same did  Plato,
Cicero, Isocrates,  and many other 
58
great men of former times;  whom,
not to tire the reader, 1 shall forbear
naming : and, in our own days, pope
Paul  Farnese led it,  and cardinal
Bembo; and it was for that  reason
they lived so  long; likewise our two
doges, Lando and Donato; besides
many others  of  meaner  condition,
and those who live not only in cities,
but also in different parts of the coun-
try, who  all found great benefit  by
conforming to this regularity.   There-
fore, since many  have led this life,
and many actually lead it, it  is not
such  a life but that  every one may
conform to it; and the more so, as no
great difficulty attends it; nothing,
indeed, being requisite but to begin
in good  earnest,  as the above-men-
tioned Cicero affirms,  and  all those
who now live in this manner.   Plato,
you will say,  though  he himself lived
very regularly, affirms, notwithstand- 
59
ing, that, in republics, men cannot do
so, being often obliged to expose them-
selves to heat, cold, and several other
kinds of hardship, and other things,
which are all so many disorders,  and
incompatible with  a regular life.  1
answer, as I have already observed,
that these are not disorders attended
with any bad consequence, or which
affect either health or life, when the
man, who undergoes them, observes
the rules of  sobriety, and commits no
excess in the  two points concerning
diet, which  a republican may very
well avoid,  nay  it  is  requisite he
should avoid;  because, by so doing,
he may be sure either to escape those
disorders, which, otherwise,  it would
be no easy matter for him to escape
while exposed to these hardships; or,
in case he could  not escape  them, he
may more easily and speedily prevent
their bad effects. 
60
  Here it may be objected, and some
actually  object,  that  he,  who leads
a regular life, having constantly, when
well, made use of food fit for the sick,
and in small quantities, has  no re-
source  left  in case of illness.   To
this I might, in the first place, answer,
that nature, desirous to preserve man
in good health as long as possible, in-
forms him, herself, how he is to act
in time of illness;; for she immediately
deprives him, when sick, of his appe-
tite, in order that he may  eat but lit-
tle; because nature  (as I have said
already) is satisfied with little; where-
fore, it is requisite, that  a  man, when
sick, whether he has been a regular
or irregular liver, should use no meats,
but such as are  suited  to  his disor-
der; and of these even in a much
smaller  quantity than  he was wont
to do, when in health.   For were he
to eat as much as he used to do, he 
61
would die by it;  because it would be
only adding to the burden, with which
nature  was already  oppressed,  by
giving her a greater quantity of food,
than she can  in such  circumstances
support;  and  this, I imagine, would
be a sufficient caution to any sick per-
son.  But, independent of all this,  I
might answer some  others, and still
better, that  whoever  leads  a regular
life, cannot  be sick; or, at least, but
seldom, and for a short time; because,
by  living regularly,  he extirpates
every seed  of sickness; and thus, by
removing the  cause, prevents the ef-
fect; so that he, who pursue? a regu-
lar course of life, need not  be appre-
hensive of illness, as he need  not be
afraid of the effect, who has guarded
against the  cause.
   Since it  therefore  appears that  a
regular  life is so profitable and vir-
tuous, so lovely  and so holy, it ought
                 6 
62
 to be universally followed  and em-
 braced;  and the more so, as it does
 not clash with the means or duties of
 any  station,  but is easy  to all;  be-
 cause, to lead it, a man need not tie
 himself down to eat so little as I  do,
 or not to  eat  fruit,  fish,  and  other
 things  of that  kind,  from  which I
 abstain, who eat little, because it is
 sufficient  for my puny  and   weak
 stomach; and fruit, fish,  and   other
things  of that  kind,  disagree with
me, which is my reason for not  touch-
ing them.   Those,  however, with
 whora such things agree, may, and
ought to-^at of  them;  since  they are
not by any means forbid  the  use of
such sustenance.   But,  then, both
they, and all others, are forbid to eat
a greater quantity of any kind of food,
even of that which agrees with them,
than what their stomachs can  easily
 digest; the same is to be understood 
63
of drink.   Hence it is that those, with
whom  nothing  disagrees,   are  not
bound to observe any  rule but that
relating to  the quantity, and not  to
the quality, of their food: a rule which
they may, without the least difficulty
in the world, comply with.*
   Let nobody tell me, that  there  are
numbers, who, though they live most
irregularly, live  in health and spirits,
to those remote periods of life, attain-
ed by the most sober; for,  this argu-
ment being grounded on a case full
of uncertainty and hazard, and which,
besides, so seldom occurs,  as to look
more like a miracle than the work of

  * As Cornaro owed his long life more to
the correctness of his regimen, in regard to
quantity than in regard to quality  of diet, so is
he very incompetent to teach others concern-
ing the best quality of food, for health and lon-
gevity.   All his  advice, it  is perceived, is
founded on the notion that what  agrees with
the stomach, is best for the body: but this is
an exceedingly unsafe rule to follow. 
                64

nature,  men  should  not suffer them-
selves to  be thereby persuaded to
live irregularly, nature having  been
too liberal to those, who did so  with-
out suffering by  it; a favor,  which
very few  have any right  to expect.
Whoever, trusting to his youth, or the
strength of  his constitution, or  the
goodness of his stomach, slights these
observations,  must expect to   suffer
greatly  by so doing, and live in con-
stant danger of disease and death.  I
therefore affirm, that an old man, even
of a bad  constitution, who leads  a
regular  and  sober  life, is  surer of a
long one, than a young man  of the
best constitution,  who leads a  disor-
derly life.  It is not  to be doubted,
however, that a man  blessed  with a
good constitution may, by  living tem-
perately, expect to live longer than
one, whose constitution is not so good;
and that God and nature can dispose 
                 65

 matters so, that a man shall bring into
 the world with  him so sound a con-
 stitution, as to live long and healthy,
 without  observing such  strict rules;
 and then die in a very advanced age
 through  a mere dissolution of his  ele-
 mentary parts; as was the case, in
 Venice,  of the  procurator Thomas
 Contarini; and, in Padua, of the cav-
 alier Antonio Capo  di Vacca.   But
 it is not one man in a  hundred  thou-
 sand, that so much can be said of.  If
 others have a mind to live long and
 healthy,  and die without sickness of
 body or  mind, but by  mere dissolu-
 tion, they must submit to live regu-
 larly, since they cannot otherwise ex-
 pect to enjoy the fruits of such a life,
 which are almost  infinite in number,
 and each of  them, in  particular, of
 infinite value.  For, as  such regular-
ity  keeps the humors of the body
cleansed   and  purified;  it  suffers
                6* 
66
no vapors to ascend form  the stom-
ach  to  the  head;  hence  the brain
of him, who  lives in  that manner,
enjoys  such  a  constant  serenity,
that  he  is always perfectly  master of
himself.*  He, therefore, easily soars
above the low  and grovelling con-
cerns of this life, to the exalted  and
beautiful  contemplation of heavenly
things,  to his exceeding great com-
fort and satisfaction; because he, by
this  means, comes to consider, know,
and understand  that, which otherwise
he  would  never  have considered,
known, or understood;  that  is, how
great is the power, wisdom, and good-
ness of the Deity.   He then descends
to nature, and acknowledges her for

  * That they who  live as directed by Corna-
ro, will have a clear head  and a serene  and
cheerful mind, is a very important truth ; but
his notion about the vapours of the stomach
ascending to the head, should be passed over
as one of the crudities of the sixteenth century. 
67
the daughter of God; and  sees, and
even feels with his hands, that which
in any other age, or with a perception
less clear, he could never have seen or
felt.  He then truly discerns the bru-
tality of that vice into which they fall,
who know not how to  subdue their
passions,  and those three importu-
nate lusts, which, one would imagine,
came all together into the world with
us, in order to keep us  in  perpetual
anxiety and disturbance. These are,
the lust of the flesh,the lust of honors,
and the lust of riches; which are apt
to  increase with years  in such old
persons as do not lead a regular life;
because, in their passage through the
stage of manhood, they did not, as
they ought, renounce sensuality and
their passions; and take up with so-
briety and reason ; virtues which men
of a regular life, did not neglect when
they passed through the above men- 
                6U

tioned stage.  For, knowing such pas-
sions and such lusts to be inconsis-
tent  with reason, by which they are
entirely  governed;  they,  at  once,
broke loose from all temptations to
vice; and, instead of being slaves to
their inordinate appetites, they ap-
plied themselves to virtue and good %
works;  and by these means, they al-
tered their conduct, and became men
of good and sober lives. When, there-
fore, in process of time, they see them-
selves  brought by  a long series  ol
years to their dissolution, conscious
that, through  the  singular mercy  of
God, they had so sincerely relinquish-
ed the paths of vice, as never after-
wards to enter them; and moreover
hoping, through the merits of our Sa-
viour Jesus Christ, to die in his favor,
they do not suffer themselves to be
cast down at the thoughts of death,
knowing that they must die.  This is 
69
particularly the case, when, loaded
with honor, and sated with life, they
see themselves arrived at that age,
which not  one in  many thousands of
those, who live otherwise,  ever at-
tains.  They  have still the  greater
reason not to be  dejected at  the
thoughts of death, as it does not at-
tack them  violently and by surprise,
with a bitter and painful turn of their
humors, with feverish sensations, and
sharp pains, but steals upon them in-
sensibly and with the greatest ease
and  gentleness;  such an  end, pro-
ceeding entirely from an exhaustion of
the radical moisture,  which decays
by degrees like the oil of a lamp; so
that they  pass gently, without  any
sickness, from this terrestrial  and
mortal to a celestial and eternal  life.
  O holy and  truly happy regularity!
How  holy  and happy should men, in
fact, deem  thee, since the  opposite 
70
habit is the cause of such guilt and
misery, as evidently appears to those
who consider the opposite effects of
both! so that men should know thee
by  thy  voice alone, and  thy lovely
name; for what a glorious name, what
a noble  thing, is an orderly and sober
life! as,  on  the  contrary,  the  bare
mention of disorder and intemperance
is offensive to our ears.  Nay, there
is the same  difference between the
mentioning these two  things,  as be-
tween the uttering of the words angel
and devil.
  Thus I have assigned my  reasons
for  abandoning  intemperance, and
betaking myself entirely to a sober
life; with the method I pursued in
doing so, and  what was  the  conse-
quence of it; and, finally, the advan-
tages and blessings, which a sober
life confers upon those who embrace
it.  Some sensual, inconsiderate per- 
71
sons affirm, that a  long  life is no
blessing;  and that the state of man,
who has passed his seventy-fifth year,
cannot really be called life, but death:
but this is a great mistake, as I shall
fully prove; and it is my sincere wish,
that all men would endeavour to at-
tain my age, in order that they too
may enjoy that period of life, which of
all others is the most desirable.
   I will therefore give an account of
my recreations, and  the relish which
I find at this stage of life, in order to
convince the public  (which may like-
wise be done by all those who know
me) that the state I  have  now attain-
ed to is by no means death, but real
life; such a life, as by many is deemed
happy, since it abounds with all the
felicity that can  be enjoyed  in  this
world.  And this testimony they will
give, in the first place, because  they
see, and  not without the greatest 
72
amazement, the good state  of health
and spirits I enjoy;  how  I mount ray
horse without any assistance, or ad-
vantage of situation; and howl not
only ascend a single flight  of stairs,
but climb  up an hill from bottom to
top, afoot, and with  the greatest ease
and unconcern; then how gay, pleas-
ant,  and good-humored  I am; how
free from every perturbation of mind,
and every  disagreeable  thought; in
lieu of which, joy and peace have so
firmly  fixed their  residence in my
bosom,  as  never to depart from it.
Moreover, they know in what manner
I pass my time, so as not to find life a
burden; seeing I can  contrive to spend
every hour of it with the greatest de-
light and  pleasure,  having frequent
opportunities of conversing with ma-
ny  honorable  gentlemen, men val-
uable for their good sense and man-
ners, their acquaintance with letters, 
73
and every other good quality.   Then,
when I cannot enjoy  their conversa-
tion, I betake  myself to the reading
of some good  book.   When I have
read as much as I like, I write;  en-
deavoring,  in this as in every thing
else, to be of service to others, to the
utmost of my power.  And all these
things I do with the  greatest ease to
myself, at their proper seasons, and in
 my own house; which, besides being
 situated in the most beautiful quarter
 of this noble  and  learned  city of Pa-
 dua, is, in itself, really convenient and
 handsome, such, in a word, as it is no
 longer the fashion to build; for, in one
 part of it,  I can  shelter myself from
 extreme heat;  and, in the other, from
 extreme cold,  having contrived the
 apartments according to the rules of
 architecture, which teach us  what is
 to be observed in practice.
    Besides this house, I have  my sev^
                  7 
71
eral gardens, supplied  with running
waters; and in  which  I always find
something  to do,  that  amuses  me.
I have another way of diverting my-
self, which  is going  every April and
May; and,  likewise, every Septem-
ber and October, for some days, to
enjoy an eminence  belonging  to me
in  the  Euganean mountains,  and in
the  most   beautiful  part of  them,
adorned with fountains  and gardens;
and, above all, a convenient and hand-
some lodge; in  which place  I  like-
wise now and then make one in some
hunting party suitable  to my taste
and age.  Then  I enjoy for as many
days my villa in the plain, which is
laid out in  regular streets, all termi-
nating in a large square,  in the mid-
dle of which stands the church, suited
to  the condition of the  place.  This
villa is  divided by a wide and  rapid
branch of the river Brenta, on both 
75
sides of which there is a considerable
extent of country,  consisting entirely
of fertile  and well-cultivated  fields.
Besides, this district is now, God be
praised, exceedingly  well inhabited,
which it was not at first, but rather
the reverse; for it was  marshy ; and
the air so unwholesome, as to make
it a residence fitter  for snakes  than
men.   But,  on my draining off the
waters, the  air mended, and  people
resorted to it so fast, and increased to
such a degree, that it soon  acquired
the perfection in  which it now ap-
pears: hence I  may  say with truth,
that I have offered in this  place, an
altar  and a temple  to God,  with
souls to adore him:  these are things
which afford  me infinite  pleasure,
comfort, and satisfaction, as often as
I  go to see and enjoy them.
  At  the same seasons every  year, I
revisit some of the  neighboring ci- 
76
ties, and enjoy such  of my friends as
live there, taking the greatest pleas-
ure in their company and conversa-
tion;  and  by their means I also enjoy
the conversation of other men of parts,
who live in the same places;  such as
architects, painters, sculptors, musi-
cians, and husbandmen, with whom
this age most certainly abounds.   I
visit their new works; I revisit their
former ones; and I always learn some-
thing, which gives  me satisfaction.
1 see  the  palaces,  gardens,  antiqui-
ties; and  with these, the squares and
other public places, the churches,
the fortifications, leaving nothing un-
observed, from  whence 1 may reap
either entertainment or instruction.
But what delights me most, is, in my
journeys backwards and forwards, to
contemplate the situation and other
beauties of the places I pass through;
some in the plain, others on hills, ad- 
77
joining to rivers or fountains;  with a
great many fine houses  and gardens.
Nor are my recreations rendered less
agreeable  and  entertaining  by  my
not seeing well, or not hearing readily
every thing that is said to me; or by
any other of my faculties  not being
perfect;  for they are  all, thank God,
in  the highest perfection;  particu-
larly my  palate, which now relishes
better the simple fare I eat, wherever
I happen  to be, than  it  formerly  did
the most delicate  dishes, when I  led
an  irregular  life.*    Nor  does   the
change of beds  give me any  uneasi-
  * Incredible as this may si-.em to such as
have no gustatory enjoyment, except in  the
most complicated and highly seasoned prepar-
ations of cookery, yet it is strictly  true,  that
they whose organs are accustomed only to the
most simple and natural forms of  food, find a
relish and enjoyment in their plain and health-
ful repast, which is wholly unknown to them
who  seek  for pleasure in richly  prepared
dishes.  Of this truth there are  hundreds of
living witnesses at the present day.
                  7* 
78
ness,  so  that  I  sleep  every where
soundly and quietly, without experi-
encing the  least disturbance;  and
all my dreams are pleasant and de-
lightful.
  It is likewise with the greatest plea-
sure and satisfaction I behold the suc-
cess of an undertaking so important
to this state, I mean  that of draining
and improving so  many uncultivated
pieces of ground, an undertaking be-
gun within my memory;  and which 1
 never thought I should live to see com-
 pleted;  knowing how slow  republics
 are apt  to proceed  in enterprises of
 great importance.  Nevertheless, 1
 have lived  to see it; and  was  even
 in person,  in  these marshy  places,
 along with  those appointed to super-
 intend the  draining of them,  for two
 months together, during the greatest
 heats of summer, without ever finding
 myself the worse for  the  fatigues oi 
79
inconveniences I suffered; of so much
efficacy is  that orderly life, which 1
every where constantly lead.*
  What is more, I am in the greatest
hopes, or rather sure,  to see the be-
ginning  and completion of another
undertaking of no  less importance,
which is that of  preserving our estu-
ary or port, that last and  wonderful
bulwark of my dear country, the pre-
servation of which (it is not to flatter
my vanity I say it, but merely to  do
justice to truth) has been more  than
once recommended by me  to this  re-
public, by word of mouth, and in wri-
tings which cost me many nights stu-
dy. And to this dear country of mine,
as  I am bound  by the laws of nature
to  do every thing, from which it may
  * Strict, systematic, and well regulated tem-
perance is the best possible security, not only
against all ordinary chronic and ac^te diseases,
but also against the evil effect of malaria and
all epidemic chihcp. such as pi-i^ue, cholera, &c. 
80
reap any benefit, so 1 most ardently
wish perpetual  duration, and a long
successsion  of  every kind of  pros-
perity.  Such are my genuine and no
trifling satisfactions; such are the re-
creations and diversions of my old
age, which is so much the more  to be
valued than the  old age, or even youth,
of other men, because being freed, by
God's grace, from  the  perturbations
of the mind, and the infirmities of the
body, it no longer experiences any of
those contrary  emotions, which tor-
ment a number of young  men, and
many old  ones  destitute of strength
and health,  and every other blessing.
   And if it be lawful to compare little
matters, and such as  are  esteemed
trifling, to affairs of importance, I will
further venture to say, that such are
the effects of this sober life, that  at
my present age of eighty-three, I have
been able to write a very entertaining 
81
comedy,  abounding  with  innocent
mirth and pleasant jests.  This spe-
cies of composition is  generally the
child and offspring of youth, as tra-
gedy is  that of old age; the former
being by its facetious  and sprightly
turn suited to the bloom of life, and
the latter by its gravity  adapted  to
riper years.  Now, if that good old
man,* a Grecian by birth, and a poet,
was so much extolled for having writ-
ten a tragedy at the age of seventy-
three, and on that account alone, re-
puted of sound memory  and under-
standing, though tragedy be a  grave
and melancholy poem;  why should I
be deemed less happy, and to have a
smaller share of memory and under-
standing, who have,  at an age,  ten
years more advanced than his, written
a comedy, which, as every one knows,
is a merry and pleasant kind of com-
             * Sophocles. 
82
position ?  And, indeed, if I may be
allowed to be an impartial judge in
my own cause, 1 cannot help thinking,
that I am now of sounder memory and
understanding, and heartier, than he
was when ten years younger.
  And, that no comfort might be want-
ing to the fullness of my years, where-
by my great age may be rendered less
irksome, or rather the number of my
enjoyments increased, I have the ad-
ditional comfort of seeing a kind of
immortality in a succession of descen-
dants.  For, as often as I return  home,
I find there, before me, not one or two,
but eleven grandchildren, the oldest
of them eighteen, and the youngest
two; all the offspring of one  father
and one mother;  all blessed with the
best health;  and, by what as yet ap-
pears, fond of learning, and of good
parts and morals.  Some of the young-
est I always  play with ; and, indeed, 
83
children from  three to five are only

fit for play.   Those  above that age I

make companions of;  and, as nature

has bestowed very fine voices  upon

them, I amuse myself, besides, with

seeing  and  hearing them sing,  and

play on various  instruments.  Nay, I
sing myself,  as I have  a better voice

now, and a clearer and louder  pipe,

than at any other period of life.  Such
are the recreations of my  old age.*

  *  Gentle reader ! art thou still in early life,
and dost thou sometimes contemplate old age
as necessarily a state of feebleness and decrepi-
tude, and gloom? Or art  thou already what
the young call old, and dost thou feel thyself
entering into the dreary winter of thy bodily
existence.  Seest thou nothing but weakness
and infirmities, and the  fast waning of life's
flickering light, in the cheerless prospect be-
fore thee?  Seems thy unjoyous way  down-
ward into the vale of death, covered with a mist
whose density  increases as thou descendest,
wrapping thee in deeper and yet deeper gloom,
and blearing thy  vision, and taking away thy
other senses by slow, but yet too painfully per-
ceptible degrees :  and shutting  thee up to the
solitary consciousness of exhausted powers and 
84
   Whence it appears, that  the life I

lead is cheerful, and not gloomy, as

some persons pretend, who know no

better; to whom, in order that it may


approaching death?  and with such a prospect
before thee, or in such a state, art thou incred-
ulous when the venerable Cornaro tells of the
comforts and the cheerfulness of his green old
age ? Does it seem to thee impossible that at
the age  of ninety or  a hundred years,  a man
should have that health and vigor and vivacity
and cheerfulness, and increased enjoyment of
which Cornaro speaks?  Doubt  not, beloved
reader !  but be  assured, if thou  wilt live the
life of the  righteous, thou shalt  reap his re-
ward !  Obey the laws of life!  Wrong not thy
body nor thy soul! Live as thou shouldst, in
harmony with the universal and  inflexible go-
vernment of God, established constitutionally
in the great system of nature's laws, and thou
shalt experience the  health, the serenity, the
peace,  the  cheerfulness,  the happiness,  and
even the raptures of Cornaro.  And when thy
life is spent, and thou art called  to make thy
exit from this changing scene, thou shalt walk
erect in patriarchal manliness, like Moses, to
the mountain top, with vision unimpaired, and
scarce diminished strength, and  there  in  the
glorious prospect of  a better world, thy God
himself will spread thy death-bed for thee,  and
take thee to himself, without a pain! 
                85

appear what value 1 set on every other
kindof life,I must declare,that I would
not exchange my manner of living or
my grey hairs with any of those young
men, even of the best constitution, who
give way to their appetites; knowing,
as 1 do, that such are daily, nay, hour-
ly, subject, as  I  have  already obser-
ved, to a thousand kinds of ailments
and deaths. This is,  in fact, so ob-
vious, as to require no proof.  Nay, I
remember perfectly well, how I used
to behave at that time  of life.  1 know
how inconsiderately that age is apt to
act, and  how  foolhardy young  men,
hurried on  by the heat of their blood,
are wont to be;  how apt they are to
presume  too  much on  their  own
strength in all their actions; and how
sanguine they are in  their expecta-
tions ; as well on account of the little
experience  they  have had for the
time past, as by reason of  th.3 power
                8 
86
they enjoy in their own imaginations
over the time to come.   Hence they
expose themselves rashly to  every
kind of danger;  and, banishing rea-
son,  and  bowing  their  necks  to the
yoke of concupiscence, endeavour to
gratify all their appetites, not minding,
fools as they are, that they thereby
hasten, as I have several times ob-
served, the approach of what they
would  most willingly avoid, I mean
sickness, and death.   Of these two
evils, one is troublesome and painful,
the other, above  all  things, dreadful
and  insupportable;  insupportable to
every man, who has given himself up
to his sensual appetites, and to young
men in particular, to whom it appears
a hardship  to die an  early death;
dreadful to those, who  reflect  on the
errors, to which this mortal life  is sub-
ject, and on the vengeance which the
justice of God is  wont to take on sin- 
87
ners,  by condemning them  to ever-
lasting  punishment.   On the other
hand, I, in my old age, (praise to the
Almighty,) am exempt from both these
apprehensions; from the one,because
1 am sure and certain, that  I cannot
fall sick, having removed all the cau-
ses of illness by my divine medicine;
from  the other, that of death, because
from so many years experience 1 have
learned to obey reason; whence I not
only think it a great  piece of folly to
fear that, which cannot be  avoided,
but likewise firmly expect some con-
solation, from  the  grace   of Jesus
Christ,  when  I shall arrive at  that
period.
   Besides, though I  am sensible that
1 must, like others, reach that term,
it is yet at so great a distance, that I
cannot discern it, because I know  I
shall not die except  by mere dissolu-
tion,  having already, by my regular 
88
course of  life, shut up all  the  other
avenues of death, and  thereby pre-
vented the humors of my body from
making any other war upon me, than
that  which I must expect from the
elements employed in the  composi-
tion of this mortal frame.  I am not
so simple  as not to  know, that, as  I
was born,  so 1 must die.  But that is
a desirable death, which nature brings
on us by way of dissolution.   For na-
ture, having herself formed the union
between  our body and  soul, knows
best  in what manner  it  may be most
easily dissolved,  and  grants us  a lon-
ger day to do it, than we could expect
from sickness, which is violent.   This
is the death, which, without speaking
like a poet, I may call, not death, but
life.  Nor can it  be otherwise.  Such
a death does not overtake one till af-
ter a very long course of years, and in
consequence of an extreme weakness; 
89
it  being only by slow degrees,  that
men grow too feeble to walk, and un-
able to reason, becoming blind, and
deaf, decrepid, and full of every other
kind of infirmity.  Now  I (by God's
blessing) may be quite sure that I am
at a very great distance from such a
period.  Nay, I have reason to think,
that my soul, having so agreeable a
dwelling in my body, as not to meet
with any thing in it but peace, love,
and harmony, not only  between its
humors, but between my  reason  and
the senses, is exceedingly content and
well pleased with her  present situa-
tion:  and of course, that  a great
length of time and many years must
be requisite to dislodge her. Whence
it  must be concluded for certain,  that
I have still a series of years to live in
health  and spirits,  and  enjoy  this
beautiful  world,  which  is, indeed,
beautiful to those, who know how to
                8* 
90
make it so, as I have done, and like-
wise expect to be  able  to do, with
God's assistance, in the next; and all
by the means of virtue,  and that  di-
vine regularity of life, which  I have
adopted, concluding an alliance with
my reason, and declaring war against
my sensual appetites; a thing which
every man may do, who desires  to
live as he ought.
  Now, if this sober life be so happy;
if  its name be  so  desirable and de-
lightful;  if the possession of the bles-
sings which attend it, be so  stable
and permanent, all I have still  left to
do, is to beseech (since I cannot com-
pass my desires by the powers  of ora-
tory) every man of  a liberal disposi-
tion, and sound understanding, to em-
brace with open arms this most val-
uable treasure of a  long and healthy
life; a treasure, which as it exceeds
all  the other riches and  blessings of 
91
this world,  so it  deserves above all
things to be cherished, sought after,
and  carefully  preserved.    This is
that divine sobriety, agreeable to the
Deity, the friend of nature, the daugh-
ter of reason, the sister of all the vir-
tues,  the  companion  of temperate
living,  modest,  courteous,  content
with  little, regular,  and perfect mis-
tress  of all her  operations.  From
her, as from their proper root, spring
life,  health,  cheerfulness,   industry,
learning, and  all those actions and
employments  worthy of noble and
generous minds.  The laws of God
and man are all in her favor.  Reple-
 tion,  excess, intemperance,  superflu-
ous  humors,  diseases, fevers, pains,
 and the dangers  of death, vanish, in
 her presence,  like clouds before the
 sun.   Her comeliness ravishes  every
 well-disposed  mind.  Her   influence
 is so sure, as to promise to all a very 
92
long and agreeable existence; the fa-
cility of acquiring her is such, as ought
to induce every  one to look for her,
and share  in her  victories.   And,
lastly, she promises to be a mild and
agreeable guardian of life;  as  well
of the rich  as of the poor; of the
male as of  the  female sex; the old
as of the young;  being that, which
teaches the rich, modesty; the poor,
frugality;  men, continence;  women,
chastity; the old, how to ward off the
attacks of  death;  and bestows on
youth firmer and securer hopes of life.
Sobriety renders the senses clear, the
body light, the understanding lively,
the soul brisk, the  memory tenacious,
our motions free, and all our actions
regular and easy.   By means of so-
briety, the soul delivered, as it were,
of her earthly burthen, experiences a
great deal of her natural liberty: the
spirits  circulate gently through the 
93
arteries; the blood runs freely through
the veins;  the heat of the body, kept
mild  and  temperate, has  mild and
temperate  effects:  and,  lastly,  our
faculties, being under a perfect, reg-
ulation,  preserve  a  pleasing and
agreeable  harmony.
   O most innocent and holy sobriety,
the  sole refreshment of nature, the
nursing  mother  of  human life, the
true  physic  of soul as  well as of
body.   How  ought men to  praise
thee, and thank thee for thy princely
gifts!  since  thou  bestowest on them
the means of preserving this blessing,
I mean life and health, than which it
has not pleased God we should enjoy
a  greater on this  side of the  grave,
life  and existence being a  thing so
naturally coveted, and  willingly pre-
served,  by  every  living  creature.
But,  as I  do  not intend  to write a
panegyric on this rare  and excellent 
94
virtue, I shall put an end to this dis-
course, lest I should be guilty of ex-
cess, in dwelling so long on so  pleas-
ing a  subject.  Yet as  numberless
things may still be said of it, I leave
off, with an intention of setting forth
the rest of its praises at a  more con-
venient opportunity. 
            A

COMPENDIUM

           OF A

   SOBERLIFE.
  My treatise on a sober life has be-
gun to answer my desire, in being of
service to many persons born with a
weak constitution,  who  every  time
they committed the least excess, found
themselves greatly indisposed, a thing
which it must  be allowed does not
happen to robust people: several of
these persons of weak constitutions,
on seeing the foregoing treatise, have
betaken themselves to a regular course 
96
of life, convinced by experience of its
utility. In like manner, I should be glad
to be of service to those, who are born
with a good constitution, and  presu-
ming upon it, lead a disorderly life ;
whence it  comes to pass, that, on their
attaining  the  age  of sixty or therea-
bouts, they are attacked with various
pains and diseases; some  with  the
gout, some with pains in the  side,  and
others with pains in  the stomach,  and
the like, to  which they would not be
subject, were they to  embrace a so-
ber life;  and as most of them die be-
fore they attain their eightieth year,
they  would  live to a  hundred,  the
time allowed  to man by God and na-
ture.  And,  it is  but reasonable to
 believe, that  the intention of this our
 mother is, that we should  all attain
 that term, in order that we might all
 taste the sweets of every state of life.
 But, as our birth is subject to the re- 
97
volutions  of the heavens, these have
great influence  over it, especially in

rendering our constitutions robust or
infirm;  a  thing, which nature cannot
ward  against; for, if she  could, we

should  all bring a good constitution
with us into the world.  But then  she

hopes, that man, being endowed with

reason and understanding, may of him-
self compensate, by dint  of art,  the
want of that, which the heavens have
denied him ; and, by means of a sober
life, contrive to mend  his infirm con-
stitution, live  to a great age, and al-
ways enjoy good health.*

  * At what period in the history of human
ignorance and ei ror, and superstitiSn and folly,
the destinies of man were first connected with
the  influence of the stars, it  is impossible to
tell: but it was about the commencement of the
fifteenth century, that  the ridiculous fanfaran-
ade of medical astrology was revived in  Europe
by a learned  physician of Florence : and about
a  hundred and fifty years later, a celebrated
German Physician seriously instructed the peo-
ple to consult the stars concerning their health ;
                  9 
98
   For man, it is not to  be doubted,
may by art  exempt  himself in part

from the influence of the heavens; it
being the  common  opinion, that the
heavens  give  an  inclination, but do

not  impel us;  for which  reason the
learned say,  that a  wrise  man rules

the stars.  I was born with a very cho-

leric disposition, insomuch that  there


and particularly, once in seven years, to guard
by all the virtues of medicine, " against the
baleful influences of the malignant planet Sa-
turn, which is an enemy to our vital spirits, and
ready to introduce  some bad  change into the
animal economy."  We have scarcely yet been
able  to wipe this ancient relic of human folly
fro-m the frontispieces of our almanacs: and
therefore we cannot be surprised that Cornaro,
in whose very day, the learned  men  of the
world gravely taught such  nonsense,  should
honestly talk about the influence of the heaven-
ly bodies, on the constitution, and health, and
longevity of man.   But, reader !  regard it as
the exploded folly of by-gone years.   Corna-
ro's facts, in regard to himself, are just as valua-
ble to thee, as though all his reasonings and
speculations concerning  the humors and the
heavenly bodies were correct. 
99
was no living with me; but I took no-
tice of it, and considered, that a per-
son swayed by his passion, must at
certain times be no better than a mad-
man ; I mean at those times, when he
suffers his passions to predominate,
because he then renounces his reason
and understanding.  I, therefore, re-
solved to make my choleric disposi-
tion give way to reason; so that now,
though  born choleric, 1 never suffer
anger entirely to overcome me. The
man, who is naturally of a bad con-
stitution, may, in like manner, by dint
of reason, and a sober life, live to  a
great age and in good health, as  I
have done,  who  had  nuturally the
worst,  so that  it was impossible  I
should live above forty years, where-
as I now find myself sound and hearty
at the age of eighty-six;  and were
it not for the long and  violent fits of
illness  which 1 experienced in  my 
100
youth to such a degree, that the phy-
sicians gave me over, and which rob-
bed me of my radical moisture, a loss
absolutely  irrepairable,  I might  ex-
pect to attain  the  abovementioned
term of one  hundred.  But I know
for good reasons that it is impossible;
and, therefore, do not think of it.  It
is  enough for me, that I have lived for-
ty-six years beyond the term I had a
right to expect;  and that, during this
so long a respite, all my senses have
continued perfect; and even my teeth,
my voice, my memory, and my strength.
But what is still more, my brain is more
itself now than ever it was; nor do any
of these powers abate as I advance in
years; and  this because, as I grow
older, I lessen the quantity of my solid
food.*
  This retrenchment is necessary, nor
  * This is an important rule, which  every
aged person should observe. 
101
can it be avoided, since it is impossible
for a man to live for ever;  and, as he
draws near his end, he is reduced so
low as to be no longer able to take
any nourishment, unless it be to swal-
low, and that too with  difficulty, the
yolk of an egg in the four and twenty
hours, and thus end by mere dissolu-
tion, without any pain or sickness, as
1 expect will be my case.  This is a
blessing of great importance; yet may
be expected  by all those, who shall
lead a sober life, of whatever  degree
or condition, whether high, or mid-
dling, or low;  for we are all of the
same species, and  composed  of the
same four  elements.  And,  since  a
long and healthy life ought to be great-
ly coveted by every man, as  I shall
presently shew, I conclude, that eve-
ry man is bound in  duty to exert him-
self to obtain longevity,  and that  he
                9* 
102
cannot promise himself such a bless-
ing without temperance and sobriety.
  Some alledge, that many, without
leading such a life, have  lived to an
hundred, and that in constant health,
though they eat a great deal, and used
indiscriminately every kind of viands
and wine; and, therefore, flatter them-
selves, that they shall be equally for-
tunate.   But in this they are guilty of
two mistakes; the first is, that it is not
one in an hundred  thousand that ever
attains that happiness; the other mis-
take  is, that such, in the  end, most
assuredly contract some illness, which
carries  them off: nor  can they ever
be sure of ending their  days other-
wise : so that the safest way to obtain
a long and healthy life is, at least af-
ter forty, to embrace sobriety.  This
is no such difficult affair, since histo-
ry informs us of so many who in for-
mer times lived with the greatest tern- 
103
perance;  and I know that the present
age furnishes us with many such in-
stances, reckoning myself one of the
number: we are all human beings,
and  endowed  with  reason,  conse-
quently we are masters of all our ac-
tions.
  This sobriety  is  reduced to two
things, quality and  quantity.   The
first,  namely,  quality,  consists  in
nothing, but not eating food, or drink-
ing wines,  prejudicial  to  the  stom-
ach.*  The second, which is quan-
tity, consists in not eating or drink-
ing more than the stomach  can  easily
digestjf  which quantity and quality
every man should be a  perfect judge
of by the time  he is forty, or  fifty,
or  sixty;  and,  whoever   observes
these two rules,  may be said to live

         * See Note, page 63.
  t This rule as to quantity,  is of the utmost
importance. 
104
a regular and sober life.  This is of
so  much virtue  and  efficacy, that
the  humors of such  a man's  body
become  most  homogeneous, harmo-
nious,  and perfect; and,  when thus
improved,  are  no  longer  liable  to
be  corrupted  or disturbed by any
other disorders whatsoever, such as
suffering excessive  heat or cold,  too
much fatigue,  want of natural rest,
and the like, unless in the last degree
of excess.  Wherefore, since the  hu-
mors of  persons,  who  observe  these
two rules relative to eating and drink-
ing, cannot possibly  be  corrupted,
and engender  acute  diseases,  the
sources of  an untimely death, every
man is bound to  comply with them:
for  whoever acts otherwise,  living
a disorderly instead of a regular life,
is constantly exposed to disease and
mortality, as well  in consequence of
such disorders, as of others  without 
105
number,  each  of which  is capable
of producing the same destructive
effect.
  It is, indeed, true, that even those,
who observe the two  rules relating
to  diet, the  observance  of which
constitutes  a  sober life, may,  by
committing any  one  of the other ir-
regularities, find himself the worse for
it, a  day or two; but not so as  to
breed a fever.   He  may, likewise,
be affected by  the revolutions of the
heavens;  but  neither the heavens,
nor those irregularities,  are capable
of corrupting the humors of a tem-
perate person; and it is  but  reason-
able and natural it should be  so, as
the two irregularities of diet  are in-
terior, and the others exterior.
  But as there  are  some  persons,
stricken  in years, who are,  notwith-
standing, very gluttonous, and alledge
that neither  the quantity or quality 
106
of their  diet makes any  impression
upon them,  and therefore eat a great
deal, and of every thing  without dis-
tinction,   and  indulge   themselves
equally  in  point  of drinking,  be-
cause  they  do not know  in what
part of their bodies their stomachs
are situated; such, no doubt, are be-
yond all  measure  sensual, and slaves
to  gluttony.   To  these I answer,
that what they say is impossible  in
the nature of things, because it is im-
possible  that every man,  who  comes
into the world, should not bring with
him a  hot,  a cold, or  a temperate
constitution;  and  that   hot   foods
should agree with hot constitutions,
cold with cold ones; and things that
are not of a  temperate nature, with
temperate ones, is likewise  impossi-
ble in nature.*  After all, these epi-

  * This is mostly  a smattering of the jargon
of the schools.  See Note, page 41. 
107
cures must allow, that they are now
and then  out of order;  and that they
cure themselves by taking evacuat-
ing medicines and  observing a  strict
diet.  Whence it appears, that their
being out of order is  owing to their
eating  too much,  and of things dis-
agreeing with their stomach.
  There are other old gluttons, who
say, that it is  necessary they should
eat and drink a great  deal, to keep
up their natural heat,  which is con-
stantly diminishing, as they advance
in years;  and  that it is,  therefore,
necessary to eat heartily, and of such
things as please their  palate, be they
hot,  cold,  or temperate;  and that,
were they to lead a sober life, it would
be a short  one.  To these I answer,
that our  kind mother, nature, in or-
der that old men may live still to a
greater age,  has contrived matters
so, that they should be able to subsist 
108
on little, as I do; for,  large  quanti-
ties of food cannot be digested  by
old and feeble stomachs.  Nor should
such persons  be afraid  of shortening
their days by eating too little, since
when they  happen to be indisposed,
they recover  by lessening  the quan-
tity  of their food;  for it is a  tri-
fle they eat, when confined to a  re-
gimen, by observing which they  get
rid of their disorder.   Mow, if by re-
ducing  themselves  to  a very  small
quantity of food, they  recover from
the  jaws  of death,  how can they
doubt but that  with an increase  of
diet,  still consistent  however with
sobriety, they will be able to support
nature when  in  perfect health ?
  Others say, that it is better for a
man to suffer  every year three or four
returns of his usual disorders, such
as the gout, pain in the side, and  the
like, than  be tormented  the whole 
109
year by not indulging  his  appetite,
and eating every thing his palate likes
best; since, by a good regimen alone,
he is sure to get the betler of such
attacks.  To this  1 answer,  that our
natural heat growing less and less, as
we advance in years, no regimen can
retain  virtue   sufficient to  conquer
the malignity,  with which  disorders
of repletion are ever  attended; so
that he must  die, at  last,  of these
periodical  disorders,  because  they
abridge life, as health prolongs it.
   Others pretend, that it  is much
better to live ten years less, than not
indulge one's  appetite.  To  this I
answer, that  longevity ought to be
highly valued  by  men of  parts; as
to others, it is no great matter if it
is not  duly prized  by them, since
they are a  disgrace to mankind, so
that their death is rather of service
to the public.   But it is a great mis-
                 10 
110
fortune, that men of  bright  parts
should be  cut  off in  that  manner,
since  he,  who is already a cardinal,
might, perhaps,  by living to eighty,
attain the papal crown; and  in the
state,  many, by living some years ex-
traordinary, may acquire the ducal
dignity; and so  in regard to letters,
by which a man  may rise so  as to be
considered as a god upon earth; and
the like in every  other prefession.
  There  are  others,  who,  though
their  stomachs become weaker and
weaker with respect to digestion, as
they advance in years,  cannot, how-
ever,  be  brought to  retrench  the
quantity  of their food,  nay  they
ratherincrease it.  And, because they
find themselves unable to digest the
great  quantity of  food, with  which
they must load their stomachs, by eat-
ing twice in the four and twenty hours,
they make a resolution to eat but once, 
Ill
that the long interval between one
meal and the other may enable them
to eat at one sitting as much as they
used to do in two: thus they eat till
their stomachs,  overburthened with
much  food,  pall, and sicken,  and
change the superfluous food into bad
humors, which   kill  a man before
his time.  1 never knew any person,
who led that kind of life, live to be
very old.  All these  old men I have
been speaking of would live long, if,
as they advanced in years,  they les-
sened  the  quantity   of  their  food,
and eat oftener,  but little at a time;
for old stomachs  cannot digest large
quantities of food; old men changing,
in that  respect, to children,  who eat
several  times in  the four and twenty
hours.
  Others say, that temperance  may,
indeed,  keep a man in health, but that
it cannot prolong his life. To this I an- 
112
swer, that experience proves the con-
trary; and that 1 myself am a living
instance of it.  It cannot be said, that
sobriety is apt to  shorten  one's days,
as sickness does; and that the  latter
abbreviates  life,  is   most  certain.
Moreover, a constant succession of
good health is preferable to frequent
sickness,  as the  radical moisture is
thereby preserved.   Hence it may be
fairly concluded, that holy sobriety
is the true parent of health and  lon-
gevity.
   O thrice holy sobriety, so useful to
man, bv the services thou renderest
him!  thou  prolongest  his  days, by
which means he greatly improves his
understanding, and by such improve^
ment he avoids the bitter fruits of sen-
 suality, which are an enemy to reason;
 man's peculiar privilege: those bitter
 fruits are the passions and  perturba-
 tions of  the mind.  Thou, moreover 
                 113

freest him from the dreadful thoughts
of death.   How greatly is thy faithful
disciple indebted to thee, since by thy
assistance he enjoys this beautiful ex-
panse of the visible world, which is
really beautiful to such as know how
to view it with a philosophic eye, as
thou hast  enabled me to do.  Nor
could I, at any other time of life, even
when I was young, but altogether de-
bauched by an irregular life, perceive
its beauties, though I spared no pains
or expense to enjoy every season of
life.  But I found  that all  the plea-
sures of that  age had their alloy;  so
that  I never knew till I grew old, that
the world was beautiful. O truly hap-
py life, which,  over and above  all
these favors  conferred  on thine old
man, hast so improved  and perfected
his stomach, that he has now a better
relish for his  dry bread, than he had
formerly in his youth, for the most ex-
                10* 
114
quisite dainties: and all  this he has
compassed by acting rationally,know-
ing, that bread  is, above all thingsi
man's  proper food,*  when seasoned
by a good appetite; and, whilst a man
leads a sober life, he may be sure of
never wanting that natural sauce;  be-
cause,  by always  eating little,  the
stomach, not being much burthened,
need not wait long to have an  appe-
tite.  It is  for  this reason, that  dry
bread relishes so well with  me ;  and
1 know it from experience, and  can
with truth affirm, I find such sweetness
in it, that I should be afraid of sinning
against  temperance, were it not  for
my being convinced of  the absolute
necessity of eating it, and that we can-
not make use of a more natural  food.f

   * This is a great truth—" Bread is above all
 things, man's proper food."   " It strengthen-
 ed the heart."  " It is the staff of life."
   f What is here said about the sweetness and 
115
And thou,  kind parent Nature, who
actest so lovingly  by thy  aged off-
spring, in order to prolong his days,
hast contrived matters so in his favor,
that he can live upon very little; and,
in order to add to  the favor, and  do
him still greater service, hast made
him sensible,  that,  as in his youth he
used to eat twice a day, when  he  ar-
rived  at old  age, he ought to  divide
that food, of which he was accustom-
ed before to make but two meals, into
four; because, thus divided, it will be
more easily digested; and, as  in  his
youth he made but two meals in the
day, he should, in his old age, make
four, provided however he lessens the
quantity, as his years increase.  And
that is what 1 do, agreeably to my own
experience; and, therefore, my spirits,

high relish of  the dry bread is very true, but
Cornaro's reason assigned for its being so is
less accurate.  See Note, page 77. 
116
not oppressed by much food, but bare-
ly kept up, are  always brisk; espe-
cially after eating, so that I am accus-
tomed then to sing a song, and after-
wards to write.
  Nor do 1 ever find myself the worse
for writing immediately after meals;
nor is my understanding ever clearer;
nor am I apt to be drowsy ;  the food I
take being in too  small a quantity to
send up  any fumes to the brain.   O,
how advantageous it is to an old man
to eat but little !  Accordingly, I, who
know it, eat but just enough to keep
body and soul together; and the things
I eat are as follow :*  First, bread,
panado, some broth with an egg in it,
or such other good kinds of soup or
spoon meat. Of flesh meat, I eat veal,
kid, and mutton.  1 eat poultry of eve-

  * The intellectual advantages of this kind of
temperance are fully equal to the declarations
of Cornaro. 
117
ry kind.   I  eat partriges, and other
birds, such  as  thrushes.  1 likewise
eat fish;  for instance, the goldney and
the like,  amongst sea fish;  and the
pike, and such like, amongst fresh
water  fish.*  All these things are fit
for an old  man; and, therefore,  he
ought  to  be content with them, and
considering their number and variety,
not  hanker after others.   Such old
men, as are too poor  to allow them-
selves provisions of this kind, may do
very well with  bread, panado, and
eggs;  things, which no poor man can
want, unless it be common beggars,
and,as we call them, vagabonds, about
whom  we are not bound to make our-
selves  uneasy,since they have brought
themselves to that pass by their indo-

  * Reader! this catalogue  of articles is no rule
for thee. Remember that  quantity is all that
thou canst learn from Cornaro, in relation to
diet. 
118
 lence;  and had better  be dead than
 alive; for they are a disgrace to hu-
 man nature.   But, though a poor man
 should eat nothing but bread, panado,
 and eggs, there is no necessity for his
 eating more than his stomach can di-
 gest.*  And,  whoever does not tres-
 pass  in point  of either quantity or
 quality, cannot die but by mere disso-
 lution.  O, what a difference there is
 between a  regular  and an irregular
 life !  One gives longevity and health,
 the other produces diseases and un-
 timely deaths.
  O unhappy, wretched life,my sworn
 enemy, who art good for nothing but
 to murder those,  who  follow  thee!
 How many of my dearest relations and
 friends  hast thou robbed me  of, in

  *  This is very true.   It is better to eat a
moderate quantity of less healthy food, than to
eat an immoderate quantity of more healthy
 food. 
119
consequence of their not giving credit
to me ; relations and friends, whom I
should now enjoy.   But thou hast not
been able  to  destroy me, according
to thy wicked intent and purpose.  I
am still alive in spite of thee, and have
attained  to such an  age, as  to see
around me eleven  grandchildren, all
of fine understanding,and amiable dis-
position ; all given to learning and vir-
tue ; all beautiful in their persons and
lovely in their manners;  whom, had 1
obeyed thy dictates, I should never
have  beheld.  Nor should  1 enjoy
those beautiful and convenient apart-
ments  which  I have  built from the
ground, with such a variety of gardens,
as required no small  time to attain
their  present degree of perfection.
No! thy nature is  to destroy those
who follow thee, before they can see
their houses or gardens so  much as
finished; whereas, I, to thy no small 
120
confusion, have already enjoyed mine
for  a great number  of years.  But,
since thou art  so  pestilential a vice,
as to poison and  destroy the whole
world; and I  am determined to use
my  utmost endeavors  to  extirpate
thee, at least in part; I have resolved
to counteract thee so, that my eleven
grandchildren  shall take pattern after
me; and thereby expose thee,  for
what thou really art, a most wicked,
desperate, and mortal enemy of the
children of men.
  I, really, cannot  help  admiring,
that men of fine parts, and such there
are, who have attained a superior
rank in letters or any other profes-
sion, should not betake themselves
to a regular life, when they  are  ar-
rived at the age of fifty or sixty; or
as soon as they  find  themselves at-
tacked by any of the  foregoing dis-
orders, of which  they  might easily 
121
recover; whereas, by  being permit-
ted to get ahead, they become incu-
rable.  As to young  men, 1 am no
way surprised at them,  since, the
passions  being strong at that  age,
they are of course the more  easily
overpowered by  their baleful  influ-
ence.  But  after  fifty,  our  lives
should,  in every  thing, be governed
by  reason,  which teaches  us,  that
the consequences of gratifying our
palate and  our appetite are disease
and death.   Were  this pleasure of
the palate lasting, it would  be some
excuse; but it is so momentary,  that
there is scarce any distinguishing be-
tween the beginning and the end of
it;  whereas  the diseases it produces
are very  durable.  But it must be a
great contentment to a  man of sober
life, to be able to reflect that,  in the
manner he lives, he is sure, that what
he eats, will keep him in good health,
                11 
122
and be productive  of no disease  or
infirmity.
  Now  I  was willing  to make this
short addition to my treatise, found-
ed  on  new reasons;  few  persons
caring  to  peruse  long-winded  dis-
courses;  whereas short tracts have a
chance of being read by many;  and
I wish that many may see this addi-
tion, to the end that its utility may be
more extensive. 
                  AN

   EARNEST EXHORTATION ;
Wiikceiii the Author uses the strongest arguments to
  persuade all men to embrace a regular and sober life,
  in order to attain old age, in which tl.ey may enjoy all
  the favors and blessings, that God, in his goodness,
  vouchsafes to bestow upon mortals.

   Not to be wanting to my duty, that
duty incumbent upon every man; and
not to lose at the  same time the sat-
isfaction I feel in  being useful to oth-
ers,  I  have resolved to take up my
pen, and inform those, who, for want
of conversing with  me, are strangers
to what those know  and see,  with
whom I have the pleasure of  being
acquainted.  But, as  certain  things
may appear, to some persons, .scarce
credible, nay impossible, though ac- 
124
tually fact, I shall not fail to relate
them for  the  benefit  of the  public.
Wherefore, I  say,  being  (God  be
praised)  arrived  at  my  ninety-fifth
year, and  still finding myself sound
and hearty, content and  cheerful, I
never cease thanking the Divine Ma-
jesty for so great a blessing;  consid-
ering the  usual fate of other old men.
These scarce attain the age  of sev-
enty, without losing their health and
spirits;   growing  melancholy   and
peevish;  and continually haunted by
the thoughts of death;  apprehending
their last hour from  one day to  an-
other, so that it is impossible  to drive
such thoughts out  of their mind;
whereas such things give me  not the
least uneasiness;  for,  indeed, I can-
 not, at all, make  them the object of
 my attention, as I shall hereafter more
 plainly relate.  I shall,  besides,  de-
 monstrate the certainty 1 have  of liv- 
125
ing to  an hundred.  But, to render
this dissertation more  methodical,  I
shall begin by considering man at his
birth;  and from  thence accompany
him through every stage of life to his
grave.
   I, therefore,  say, that some come
into the  world with the stamina  of
life so  weak, that they live but a few
days,  or months,  or  years; and it
cannot be  clearly known,  to  what
such shortness of life is owing; wheth-
er to  some defect in  the father  or
the mother, in begetting them;  or
to the revolutions of the heavens;*
or to  the defect of nature, subject,
as she is,  to the celestial influence.
For, 1 could  never bring myself to
believe,  that  nature,   the  common
parent of  all, should  be partial  to
any of  her  children.   Therefore,
See Note, page 97.
      11* 
126
as we cannot assign the causes, we
must be content with reasoning from
the effects, such as they daily appear
to our view.
   Others are born sound,indeed,and
full of spirits; but, notwithstanding,
with a poor weakly constitution; and
of these some live to the age of ten;
others to twenty; others to thirty and
forty; yet they do not live to extreme
old age.  Others, again, bring into the
world a perfect constitution, and live
to old age; but it  is generally, as I
have  already said,  an old age full of
sickness and sorrow; for which  they
are to thank themselves; because they
most  unreasonably presume  on the
goodness of their constitution; and
cannot by any means be brought to
depart, when grown old, from the mode
of life they pursued in their  younger
days; as if they still retained all their
primitive vigor.   Nay, they  intend to 
127
live as irregularly when past the me-
ridian of life, as they did all the time
of their  youth;  thinking they shall
never grow old, nor their constitution
be ever impaired.  Neither  do they
consider, that their stomach  has lost
its natural heat; and that they should,
on that account, pay a greater regard
to the quality of what they eat, and
what wines they drink; and likewise
to the  quantity of each, which they
ought to lessen: whereas, on the con-
trary, they are for increasing it; say-
ing, that, as  we lose our health and
vigor by growing old, we should en-
deavor to repair the loss by increasing
 the quantity of our food, since it is by
 sustenance that man is preserved.
   In this, nevertheless, they are great-
 ly mistaken, since, as the natural heat
 lessens as a man grows in  years, he
 should diminish the  quantity of his
 meat and drink; nature, especially at 
128
that period, being content with little.
Nay, though they have all the reason
to believe this to be the case, they are
so obstinate as to think otherwise, and
still follow their usual disorderly life.
But were they to  relinquish it in due
time, and betake  themselves  to a re-
gular and  sober  course, they would
not grow  infirm in their old age, but
would continue, as I am, strong and
hearty, considering how good and per-
fect a constitution it  has pleased the
Almighty to bestow upon them; and
would live to the  age of one hundred
and twenty.  This has been the case
of others, who, as we read in many
authors, have lived a sober life, and,
of course, were born with this perfect
constitution;  and had it been my lot
to enjoy such a constitution, I should
make no doubt of attaining the same
age.  But, as I was born with feeble
stamina, I am afraid I shall not outlive 
129
an hundred.  Were  others, too, who
are also born with an infirm constitu-
tion, to  betake themselves to a regu-
lar life, as I have done, they would
attain the age of one  hundred and up-
wards, as will be my case.
   And this certainty of being able to
live a great age is, in my  opinion, a
great advantage,  and highly to  be
valued;  none being  sure to live even
a single hour, except such as adhere
to the rules of temperance.   This se-
curity of life is built  on good and true
natural reasons, which can never fail;
it being impossible  in the nature of
things, that he, who leads a sober and
regular  life, should  breed  any  sick-
ness, or die of an  unnatural death,
before  the time, at  which it is  abso-
lutely impossible he should live. But
 sooner he cannot die, as a sober  life
 has the  virtue  to remove all the usual
 causes of sickness, and sickness can- 
130
not happen without a cause; which
cause  being removed,  sickness  is,
likewise, removed;  and sickness be-
ing removed, an untimely and violent
death must be prevented.
  And there is no doubt, that temper-
ance has  the  virtue and efficacy to
remove such causes; for since health
and sickness, life and death, depend
on the good or bad quality of the hu-
mors, temperance corrects  their vi-
cious tendencies, and renders them
perfect, being possessed of the natural
power of making them unite and  hold
together, so  as to render them inse-
parable, and incapable of alteration
or fermenting;  circumstances, which
engender  cruel fevers, and end  in
death.  It is true, indeed, and it would
be a folly to deny it, that, let our hu-
mors be originally ever so good, time,
which consumes every thing, cannot
fail to  consume and exhaust them» 
131
and that man, as soon as that happens,
must die of a natural death; but yet
without sickness, as will be my case,
who shall die at my appointed time,
when these  humors shall  be consu-
med, which  they are not at present.
Nay, they are still perfect;  nor  is it
possible they should be otherwise in
my present  condition, when I find
myself hearty and content, eating with
a good appetite, and sleeping soundly.
Moreover, all my faculties are as good
as ever, and in the highest perfection;
my understanding clearerand brighter
than ever; my judgment sound; my
memory tenacious; my spirits good;
and my voice, the first thing which is
apt to fail others, grown so strong and
sonorous, that I  cannot help chanting
out loud my prayers  morning and
night, instead of whispering and mut-
tering them to myself, as was formerly
my custom* 
132
  And these are all so many true and
sure signs and tokens, that my humors
are good, and cannot waste but with
time, as all those, who converse with
me, conclude.   O, how  glorious this
life of mine is like to be, replete with
all the felicities which man can enjoy
on this side of the grave; and even
exempt  from that sensual brutality
which age has enabled my better rea-
son to banish; because where reason
resides, there is no room for sensuality,
nor for its bitter fruits, the passions,
and perturbations of  the mind, with
a train of disagreeable apprehensions,
Nor yet can the thoughts of death find
room in  my mind, as  I  have no sen-
suality to nourish such thoughts. Nei-
ther can the death of grandchildren
and other relations and friends make
any impression on me, but for a mo-
ment or  two;  and then  it is  over.
Still less am I liable to be cast down 
133
by losses in point of fortune (as many
have seen to their no small surprise.)
And this is a happiness not to be ex-
pected by any  but such as attain old
age by  sobriety, and not in conse-
quence of a strong constitution;  and
such may moreover expect to spend
their days happily, as I do mine, in a
perpetual round of amusement  and
pleasure.   And how is it possible a
man should not enjoy himself, who
meets with no crosses or disappoint-
ments in his old age, such as youth is
constantly plagued with,  and  from
which, as  I shall  presently shew,  I
have the happiness of being exempt?
   The first of these is to do service to
my  country.  O!  what  a glorious
amusement, in which I  find infinite
delight, as I  thereby  shew her the
means of improving her important es-
 tuary or harbor beyond the possibility
 of its filling for thousands of years to
                 12 
134
 come, so as to secure to Venice her
 surprising and  miraculous  title of a
 maiden city, as she really is; and the
 only one in the whole world : she will,
 moreover,  thereby, add to  the lustre
 of her great and excellent surname of
 queen of the sea: such is my amuse-
 ment; and  nothing is wanting to make
 it complete.  Another amusement of
 mine, is that of shewing this maid and
 queen, in what  manner she may a-
 bound with provisions, by improving
 large tracts of land, as well marshes,
 as barren  sands, to great  profit.  A
 third amusement, and an amusement
 too, without any alloy, is the shewing
 how Venice, though already so strong
 as to  be in a manner  impregnable,
 may be rendered still stronger;  and,
 though extremely beautiful, may still
 increase  in beauty;  though  rich,may
 acquire  more  wealth, and  may be
made to enjoy better air, though her 
135
air is excellent.  These three amuse-
ments, all  arising  from the idea of
public utility, I enjoy in the  highest
degree.  And who can say, that they
admit of any  alloy, as in fact they do
not?   Another comfort I  enjoy, is,
that having lost a considerable part
of my income, of which my grandchil-
dren had been unfortunately robbed,
I by mere dint of thought, which never
sleeps, and without any fatigue of bo-
dy, and very little of mind, have found
a true and infallible method of repair-
ing  such loss more  than double, by
the means of that most commendable
of arts, agriculture.  Another comfort
I still enjoy is to think, that my trea-
tise on temperance, which  I wrote in
order to be useful to  others, is really
so, as  many  assure me by word of
mouth, mentioning that it has proved
extremely useful to them, as it in fact
appears to  have been, whilst others 
136
inform me by letter, that, under God,
they are indebted to me for life. Still
another comfort I enjoy, is that of be-
ing able to write with my own hand;
for, I write enough to be of service to
others, both on architecture and agri-
culture.   I likewise, enjoy  another
satisfaction, which is that of convers-
ing with men of bright parts  and  su-
perior  understanding,  from  whom,
even at this advanced period of life,
I learn  something.   What  a comfort
is this, that, old as 1 am, I should  be
able, without the least fatigue, to study
the most important, sublime, and diffi-
cult subjects!
   I must farther add, though it may
appear impossible to some, and may
be so in  some measure, that at this
age I enjoy, at once, two  lives; one
terrestrial, which  I  possess  in fact;
the other celestial, which I possess in
thought;  and this thought is equal to 
137
actual enjoyment, when founded upon
things we are sure to attain, as 1 am
sure to attain that celestial life, through
the infinite goodness and mercy ofGod.
Thus, I  enjoy this terrestrial life, in
consequence of my sobriety and tem-
perance, virtues so agreeable to the
Deity; and I enjoy, by the  grace of
the same Divine Majesty, the celes-
tial, which  he makes me anticipate in
thought; a thought so lively,  as to fix
me entirely on this object, the enjoy-
ment of which I hold and affirm to be
of the utmost certainty.  And I hold
that dying, in the manner 1 expect, is
not really death, but a passage of the
soul from this earthly life to a celes-
tial, immortal, and  infinitely perfect
existence.  Neither  can  it be other-
wise : and this thought is so superla-
tively sublime, that it can no longer
stoop to low and worldly objects, such
as the death of this body, being en-
                 12* 
133
tirely taken up with the happiness of
living a  e-lcsli-il  and  divine  life;
whence' it  is.  that  I <"njoy two lives.
Nor can tli;- terminating of so high  a
gratification, which I enjoy in this life,
give me any eoncern ; it rather affords
me infinite  pleasure, as it will be only
to make  room  for  another,  glorious
and immortal life.
   Now, is  it possible,  that  any one
should grow tired  of so great a com-
fort and blessing, as this which I real-
ly enjoy; and  which  every one else
might  enjoy by  leading the  life  I
have  led ?  an example which every
one  has  it in  his power to  follow;
for I am but a mere man, and no saint;
a servant of God, to whom so regular
a life is extremely agreeable.
   And, whereas  many  embrace  a
spiritual   and   contemplative  life,
which is  holy  and  commendable,
the chief employment  of those who 
139
lead it being to celebrate the praises
of God;  O,  that  they  would,  like-
wise, betake themselves  entirely  to
a regular and sober life ! how much
more agreeable  would they  render
themselves  in  the  sight of  God!
What a much greater honor and or-
nament would  they be to the  world !
They would  then be  considered as
saints, indeed,  upon earth, as those
primitive Christians were held, who
joined sobriety to so recluse a life.
By living, like them, to the age of one
hundred and twenty, they might, like
them, expect, by the  power of God,
to  work  numberless  miracles;* and
they would,  besides,  enjoy constant
health and  spirits,  and  be  always
happy within  themselves;  whereas

  * It will be remembered that Cornaro was
a good Roman Catholic, and therefore believed
that the saints could attain to  the power  of
miracles. 
140
they are now,  for the most part, in-
firm,  melancholy,  and  dissatisfied.
Now, as some  of these people think,
that these are trials sent them by
God Almighty, with a view of promo-
ting their salvation, that they may do
penance, in this life, for their  past
errors, I cannot help saying, that,  in
my opinion, they are greatly mistaken.
For I can by no means believe, that it
is agreeable to the Deity,  that man,
his favorite creature, should live in-
firm,  melancholy, and  dissatisfied;
but  rather enjoy good  health and
spirits, and be always  content  with-
in himself.  In this manner did  the
holy fathers live, and  by such  con-
duct did they daily render themselves
more acceptable  to the  Divine Ma-
jesty, so as to work the  great and
surprising  miracles we read in histo-
ry.  How  beautiful, how glorious  a
scene should we then behold!  far 
141
more beautiful than in those ancient
times, because we now abound with
so many religious orders and monas-
teries,  which  did not  then  exist;
and were the members of these com-
munities  to  lead  a  temperate life,
we should then behold such a num-
ber of venerable old men, as would
create surprise. Nor would they tres-
pass against their rules; they would
rather improve  upon them;  since
every  religious   community  allows
its subjects bread, wine, and  some-
times eggs (some of them allow meat)
besides soups  made with vegetables,
sallets, fruit, and cakes, things  which
often  disagree with them,  and even
shorten their lives.  But, as they are
allowed such things  by their  rules,
they freely make  use of them;  think-
ing, perhaps, that it would be  wrong
to abstain  from  them,  whereas  it
would not.  It would rather be com- 
142
mendable, if, after the age of thirty,
they abstained from  such food, and
confined themselves  to bread, wine,
broths and eggs:  for this is the true
method of preserving men of  a bad
constitution;* and it  is a life of more
indulgence than that led by the holy
fathers of the desert, who subsisted
entirely on wild fruits and roots, and
drank  nothing but pure water; and,
nevertheless, lived, as I have already
mentioned, in good health and spir-
its, and always happy within  them-
selves.  Were those  of our days to
do the same, they would,  like them,
find the road  to heaven much easier;
for it is always open to every  faith-
ful Christian, as  our Saviour  Jesus
Christ  left it, when he came  down
upon earth to shed his precious blood,
in order to deliver us  from the tyran-

  * This dietetic advice "of wine, broths and
eggs" is good for nothing. 
143
nical servitude of the devil;  and all
through his immense goodness.

  So  that,  to make  an end  of this
discourse, I say, that since length of
days  abounds  with  so many  favors
and  blessings, and  1 happen  to be
one of those who are arrived at that
state, I cannot (as I would not wil-
lingly want  charily) but  give  testi-
mony in favor   of it, and solemnly
assure all mankind,  that I really en-
joy a great deal more  than  what  I
now  mention;  and  that  I have no
other reason for writing,  but that of
demonstrating the great advantages
which arise  from longevity, to  the
end that their  own  conviction may
induce them to  observe those excel-
lent rules of temperance and sobriety.
And  therefore I never cease  to raise
my  voice,  crying  out to you, my 
144
friends: may your days be long, that
you may be the better servants to the
Almighty! 
LETTER
               FROM
     SIGNOR  LEWIS  CORNARO,
              TO THE
RIGHT REVEREND BARBARO, PATRIARCH ELECT
            OF AQ.UILEIA.


  My Lord,—The human understand-
ing must certainly have something di-
vine  in its constitution and  frame.
How divine the invention of conver-
sing  with an absent friend by the help
of writing! How divinely is it contri-
ved by nature, that men, though at a
great distance, should see one anoth-
er with the intellectual eye, as I  now
see your lordship! By means of this
contrivance, I shall  endeavor to  en-
                 13 
146
 tertain you with matters of the great-
 est moment.   It is true,  that I shall
 speak of nothing but what I have al-
 ready mentioned; but it was not at
 the age of ninety-one, to which I have
 now attained; a thing I cannot help
 taking notice of, because as I advance
 in years, the  sounder and  heartier I
 grow,  to  the amazement of all the
 world.  I, who can account for it, am
 bound to shew, that a man may enjoy
 a  terrestrial paradise after  eighty;
 which I enjoy ; but it is not to be ob-
 tained except by temperance and so-
 briety, virtues so acceptable to the
 Almighty, because they are enemies
 to sensuality, and friends to reason.
  Now, my  lord, to begin, I  must
 tell you, that, within these (ew days
 past, I have been visited  by many of
 the learned doctors of this university,
as well physicians  as  philosophers,
who  were well acquainted  with my 
147
age,  my life, and manners; knowing
how  stout,  hearty, and  gay I was;
and in what perfection all my facul-
ties  still  continued;  likewise  my
memory, spirits,  and understanding;
and even my voice and teeth.   They
knew, besides, that I  constantly em-
ployed eight hours every day in wri-
ting  treatises, with my own  hand,
on subjects useful to  mankind, and
spent many hours in walking and
singing. O,  my  lord, how melodi-
ous my voice is grown ! were you to
hear me chant my prayers; and that
to my lyre, after  the example of Da-
vid,  I am  certain it would  give you
great pleasure, my voice is so  musi-
cal.  Now, when they told me that
they  had  been  already acquainted
with  all these particulars, they added,
that  it was, indeed, next to a miracle,
how  I could write so much, and upon
subjects that required both judgment 
148
and spirit.   And, indeed, my lord,
it  is  incredible, what  satisfaction
and pleasure 1  have in these com-
positions.   But, as I write to be use-
ful, your  lordship  may  easily con-
ceive  what  pleasure 1 enjoy.  They
concluded  by  telling  me,   that  I
ought  not  to be looked upon as a
person advanced in years, since  all
my occupations  were  those of  a
young  man; and, by no means, like
those of orher  aged  persons,  who,
when they have reached eighty, are
reckoned   decrepid.   Such,  more-
over, are subject, some  to the  gout,
some  to the sciatica, and  some  to
other  complaints,  to  be  relieved
from which they must undergo such
a  number  of painful  operations,  as
cannot but render life extremely dis-
agreeable.  And, if, by  chance, one
of them  happens to  escape a long
illness, his  faculties  are  impaired 
149
and he cannot see or hear so  well;
or else fails in some one or other  of
the corporeal  faculties,  he  cannot
walk, or his hands  shake; and, sup-
posing him exempt  from these  bod-
ily infirmities, his memory, his spirits,
or his understanding  fail him; he is
not  cheerful,  pleasant, and  happy
within himself,  as I am.
   Besides all these blessings, I men-
tioned  another, which I enjoyed;
and  so great a blessing,  that they
were all amazed at it,  since it is  al-
together  beside the  usual course of
 nature.  This blessing  is, that I had
 already lived  fifty years, in  spite of
 a most  powerful and mortal enemy,
 which 1 can by no  means conquer,
 because  it is natural,  or an  occult
 quality implanted in my body  by  na-
 ture;  and this is,  that every year,
 from the beginning of J uly till the end
 of August, I cannot  drink any wine
                 13* 
150
of whatever  kind or country;  for,
besides  being  during   these  two
months quite  disgustful to  my  pa-
late, it disagrees with my stomach.
Thus  losing  my milk, for wine is,
indeed, the milk of old age; and hav-
ing nothing to  drink, for  no change
or preparation of waters can have the
virtue of wine,  nor of course do me
any good ; having nothing,  I say, to
drink,  and  my  stomach being  there-
by disordered,  1 can eat  but very
little;  and  this spare diet, with the
want of  wine,  reduces me, by the
middle of  August,   extremely  low;
nor is  the strongest  capon  broth, or
any other remedy, of service to  me;
so that I am ready, through mere
weakness,  to  sink  into  the  grave.
Hence they  inferred, that  were not
the new wine,  for   I always  take
care to have some ready  by the be-
ginning of  September, to come in 
151
so soon, I  should  be  a  dead man.
But  what  surprised them still more
was,  that this new wine should have

power sufficient to restore me, in  two

or three  days,  to  that  degree   of

health  and  strength,   of which  the
old  wine  had  robbed me;* a  fact,


  * Here we find the  good  old man suffering
under the most dangerous, and to him, almost
fatal error of opinion. The abominable proverb,
" Wine is the old man's milk," is of great an-
tiquity, but it is  not the less fallacious.  The
aged  are always and necessarily injured by the
habitual use of wine, or alcohol, in any form or
quantity.   Indeed they cannot use it even oc-
casionally without suffering more or less injury
from it.  I am fully aware of medical as well as
popular opinion on this  subject, and I am also
aware, that  when the aged use wine, or other
forms of alcoholic liquor, they feel refreshed,
and invigorated and strengthened by it; but it
is  all a deception; a  most  dangerous decep-
tion,  which  like the fabled ignis fatuus, leads
to death.  Had I time and space to relate here,
what  I have seen of human suffering, under
this delusion, reader!  it would chill thy heart!
But the case before us is a sufficient illustration
of the error of the opinion  that " wine is the
old man's milk."  " Every year, from the be-
ginning of July to the end of August, he could 
152
they themselves  have been  eye-wit-
nesses  of,   within  these  few  days;

not drink wine of any kind nor country."  Roth
his palate and his stomach  rejected it; and by
the middle of August he was reduced extremely
low :  nor was " the strongest capon broth," or
any other remedy of service to him.   All this
the good old man attributes to "  some power-
ful and mortal enemy implanted in his body by
nature ;" but his wine,  which is  his only ene-
my in the case, he never suspects  of treachery :
nor was he aware that the more he took of this
strong capon broth, the more he  increased  the
evil.  The  truth  is, that but. for his wine, he
had never known  these annual  reductions of
strength and health.  If from the beginning of
his reformation he had  drank pure water only,
he would at this period of his life been  more
healthy and vigorous and active, and would
never have been afflicted with these yearly  de-
pressions, which  brought  him almost to  the
grave.
   His new wine contained a greater proportion
of mucilage and sugar to the alcohol and acid ;
his old wine contained  a greater  proportion of
alcohol and acid to  the mucilage and sugar.
But the quality of the wine was not alone con-
cerned in the matter; various causes co-ope-
rated to bring about this state of things,  and
the yearly habit, was only  the effort of his sys-
tem  to  relieve itself from  the injuries of the
wine ; the season of the year being much con-
cerned in the fact. 
153
and which a man must see to be-
lieve it;  insomuch  that they could
not  help  crying  out;  "Many  of
us, who are physicians, have visited
him  annually for several years past;
 and  ten years  ago,  judged  it im-
 possible for him to  live a year or
 two longer, considering what a mor-
 tal enemy  he  carried  about  him,
 and his advanced  age; yet  we do
 not  find him so weak at present as
 he  used  to  be."  This singularity,
 and  the many other blessings they
 see me  enjoy, obliged  them to con-
 fess,  that the  joining  of such  a
 number   of  favors  was,  with re-
 gard to me,  a special grace confer-
 red on me, at my birth, by nature,
  or  by the stars; and  to prove this
  to  be  a  good conclusion,  which it
  really is not (because not grounded
  on strong and sufficient  reasons,  but
  merely on their own  opinions) they 
154
found themselves under a necessity to
display their eloquence, and to say
a great many very  fine things.  Cer-
tain it is, my lord, that eloquence,
in men of  bright  parts,  has great
power; so  great, as to  induce peo-
ple to believe  things  which  have
neither actual nor possible existence.
I had, however, great pleasure and
satisfaction in hearing them; for,  it
must, no  doubt, be a high entertain-
ment  to  hear such men talk in that
manner.
  Another  satisfaction, without the
least mixture of alloy, I at the same
time  enjoyed,  was to think,  that
age  and experience are sufficient  to
make a  man learned,  who  without
them would  know  nothing;  nor  is
it  surprising  they  should,  since
length of days is  the  foundation  of
true  knowledge.    Accordingly,  it
was by  means of it alone I discov- 
155
ered their  conclusion  to  be false.
Thus,  you  see, my lord,  how  apt
men are  to  deceive themselves in
their judgment of things, when such
judgment  is not built upon a solid
foundation.   And, therefore, to un-
deceive them, and set them right, I
made  answer,  that their conclusion
was false, as I should actually con-
vince  them  by  proving,  that  the
happiness I enjoyed was not confined
to me,  but common  to all  mankind,
and that   every  man might equal-
ly enjoy it;  since  I  was but a mere
mortal, composed,  like all  others,
of the  four elements; and endued,
besides existence  and life, with  ra-
tional and intellectual faculties, which
are common to all men.  For it has
pleased the Almighty to bestow on
his favorite creature man  these  ex-
traordinary  blessings  and   favors
above  other animals,  which enjoy 
156
only the sensible perceptions; in or-
der  that such  blessings and  favors
may be the  means  of keeping  him
long in good health;  so that length of
days is an universal favor granted by
the Deity, and not by nature and the
stars.
  But man being in his youthful days
more of the sensual, than of the ra-
tional animal, is apt  to yield to  sen-
sual impressions; and, when he after-
wards arrives at the  age of forty or
fifty, he ought to consider, that he has
attained the noon of life, by the vigor
of youth, and a  good tone of stomach;
natural blessings, which favored him
in ascending the hill; but that he must
now think  of  going  down, and ap-
proaching  the  grave, with a heavy
weight of years on his back; and that
old age is the reverse of youth, as much
as order is the reverse of disorder.
Hence it is requisite he should  alter 
157
his mode of life in regard to the arti-  ■■$*
cles of eating and drinking, on which
health and longevity depend.   And
as the first part of his life was sensual
and irregular, the second should be
the reverse; since nothing can sub-
sist without  order, especially the life
of man, irregularity being without all
doubt prejudicial, and  regularity ad-
vantageous to the human species.
  Besides, it is impossible in the na-
ture of things, that the man, who is
bent on indulging his palate and his
appetite, should not  be guilty of irre-
gularity.   Hence it was that to avoid
this vice, as soon as I found  myself
arrived at maturer years, I embraced
a regular and sober life.   It is, no
doubt, true, that  I found some diffi-
culty  in compassing it;  but in order
to conquer this difficulty, 1 beseeched
the Almighty to grant me the virtue
of sobriety;  well knowing, that he
                 14 
158
would  graciously hear  my prayer.
Then, considering, that when a man
is about to undertake any thing of im-
portance, which he knows he can com-
pass, though not without difficulty, he
may make it much  easier to himself
by being steady in his purpose ; I pur-
sued the same course.   I endeavored
gradually to relinquish a disorderly
life, and to accustom myself insensi-
bly to the rules of temperance: and
thus it came to pass that a sober and
regular life  no longer proved uneasy
or disagreeable; though, on account
of the weakness of my constitution, I
tied myself down to such strict rules
in regard to the quantity and quality
of what 1 ate and drank.
   But others, who happen to be bless-
ed with a stronger temperament, may
eat many other kinds of food, and in
greater quantities;  and so of wines;
whereas, though  their lives may still 
159
be sober, they will not be so confined
as mine, but much more free.  Now,
on hearing these arguments, and ex-
amining  the reasons on which they
were founded, they all  agree that 1
had advanced nothing but what was
true.  Indeed  the youngest  of  them
said, that though he could  not but
allow the favor or advantages, I had
been speaking of, to  be  common  to
all mankind, yet I enjoy the special
grace of being able to relinquish with
ease one kind  of life, and   embrace
another;  a thing  which he  knew
by experience to be feasible ; but as
difficult to him  as it had proved easy
to me.
   To  this I replied,  that,  being a
mortal like himself, 1 likewise found
it a difficult task; but it did  not be-
come a person  to  shrink from a glo-
rious  but  practicable  undertaking,
on account of  the difficulties attend- 
160
ing it, because in  proportion to these
difficulties, is  the  honor he acquires
by it in the eye of man, and the merit
in the sight of God.   Our beneficent
Creator is desirous, that, as he origi-
nally   favored  human  nature with
longevity, we  should  all enjoy the
full  advantage  of  his  intentions;
knowing, that, when a man has pass-
ed eighty, he is entirely exempt from
the bitter fruits of sensual enjoyments,
and is entirely governed  by the dic-
tates of reason.  Vice and immorality
must then leave  him; hence  God is
willing he should live to a full matu-
rity of years;  and has ordained that
whoever  reaches  his  natural  term,
should end his days without sickness
by mere  dissolution, the natural way
of  quitting this mortal  life to enter
upon immortality, as will be my case.
For I  am  sure to die chanting  my
prayers;  nor do the dreadful thoughts 
101
of death give me the least uneasiness,
though, considering my great age, it
cannot be  far distant, knowing, as  1
do, that 1 was born.to die, and re-
flecting that such  numbers have de-
parted this life without reaching my
aSe-
  Nor does  that  other  thought, in-
separable from  the  former, namely,
the fear of those torments, to which
wicked men are hereafter liable, give
me any uneasiness; because I am a
good Christian, and bound to believe,
that 1 shall be saved by the virtue of
the  most sacred  blood  of  Christ,
which he has  vouchsafed to shed, in
order to  free us from those torments.
 How beautiful the life  1 lead! how
 happy my end!   To this, the young
gentleman, my antagonist, had  noth-
 ing to reply, but that he was resolved
 to  embrace a sober life, in order to
 follow my example;  and that he had
                14* 
162
taken another, more important, reso-
lution, which was, that, as he  had
been  always very  desirous to live to
be old, so he was now equally impa-
tient to reach that  period, the sooner
to enjoy the felicity of old age.
  The great desire 1 had, my lord, to
convers'e with you at  this distance,
has forced  me  to  be prolix, and still
obliges me  to  proceed ; though not
much further.  There are many sen-
sualists, my lord, who say, that I have
thrown away my time and trouble in
writing a treatise on Temperance, and
other discourses on the same subject,
to induce men to lead a  regular life;
alledging, that it is impossible to con-
form  to it, so that my treatise must
answer as  little purpose as  that of
Plato on  government,  who  took  a
great deal of pains to  recommend a
thing  impracticable;  whence they
inferred, that .as his treatise  was of 
163
no use, mine will share the same fate.
Now this surprises me the more, as
they may see by  my  treatise, that I
had led a sober life  for  many years
before I had composed it; and that I
should never have composed it, had 1
not previously been  convinced, that
it  was such a  life as a man might
lead;  and  being a   virtuous  life,
would be of great service to him; so
that I thought  myself under an obli-
gation to represent it  in a true light.
I have the satisfaction  now to hear,
that numbers, on  seeing  my treatise,
have embraced such  a life; and I
have read, that many, in times past,
have actually led it; so that the ob-
jection, to which Plato's treatise on
government is  liable, can  be of no
force against mine.  But such sensu-
alists, enemies  to reason, and slaves
to their passions, ought to think them-
selves well off, if, whilst they study 
164
to indulge  their palate and their ap-
petite, they  do not  contract long and
painful  diseases, and  are  not,  many
of  them, overtaken  by  an  untimely
death.
           CASE OF AN ENGLISH QUAKEJl.    •
•  " I could relate many instances of persons who were
much emaciated, some of whom were of considerable
stature, becoming muscular and fat upon four ounces  of
the  most nourishing and easily digestible  food, taken
three times a day.   A patient lately gave me Ihe follow-
ing account of his own proceedings with respect to diet.
He said, " when thou toldest me to weigh my food, I did
not tell thee that I was in the habit of weighing  myself,
and that I had lost 14 pounds weight per month, for many
months before I saw thee.  By following thine advice; I
have got rid  of what thou didst consider a very formidable
local malady; and upon thy allowance of food, I have re-
gained my flesh, and  feel  as  competent to exertion as
formerly, though I am not indeed so fat as I used to be.
I own to thee,  that as I got better, I thought thy allow-
ance rather scanty,  and being  strongly tempted to take
more food, I did so; but I continued in  the  practice  of
weighing myself, and found that I regularly lost weight
upon an increased quantity of food, wherefore, I returned
to that which was prescribed to  me."—Dr. Abernethy. 
APPENDIX.
BY THE EDITOR.
           CASE OF DEA.  CUNNINGHAM.
      Since the preceding notes to the life of Cor-
    maro were written, I  have become acquainted
    with the interesting case  detailed in  the fol-
    lowing statement, which the aged and vene-
    rable man has,  with  diffidence, consented to
    ■communicate.
}Af   '-That the reader  who is  not personally ac-
.'■   quainted with  Dea. Cunningham  and knows
    nothing of his  history, standing  and reputa-
    tion, may the better understand and appreciate
l/  the following communication,  it may be well
    to say;  that he was  born  in Mifflin  County
    Pennsylvania,  in  May  1762 : and in 1787, at
    the ajre  of twenty-five, he came to the City of
    JVcw-York,  where he  soon after established
    himself in business, in which he was very pros-
    perous, and by which  hr  accumulated a very
    handsome property.  When about thirty years
I    of aor,  he became a member of the  Presbyte-
    rian Church, then under the pastoral care of
    the Rev. Doctor Rodgers ; and about ten years
    after, he  was  elected a deacon  of  the same
    church;  which office he continued  to fill till
    he was about fifty years old, when he  was elect-
    ed an elder of the same church, which had, in
    the mean time, passed under the pastoral care
    of the Rev. Doctor Spring.  About  this same
    period, he was also elected an Alderman of the
,  \  City, which office he continued to fill for sev-
i    *eral years.  Such was  the  known hospitality 
166
of Dea. Cunningham, especially to the friends
of religion, that his house was for many years
familiarly called  "the  Clergyman's  Hotel."
Seldom did he sit down to his own table without
the presence  of a  greater or smaller number of
guests : and the social charities of his heart were
as generous as  his means  were then  ample.
He also took a lively and active interest in all
the moral and religious enterprises of the day,
which were calculated to extend the knowledge
of the truth and improve the condition of the hu-
man race. The kindness of his nature,however,
betrayed him into pecuniary responsibilities for
his friends; by which  means, connected  with
other reverses of fortune, he was compelled to
forego  those manifestations of hospitality and
social and religious charity, which had afforded :
so much enjoyment to himself, and comfort and'
benefit to others.
   The worthy old gentleman now, at the age
of seventy-one, sustains the office of an elder in
the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Prince-street*
Most of his time is actively devoted to the causet
of religion, and he seems to be happily exem-   I
plifying the truth of the  Scripture which saith,
that the path of the just is as the shining light,
that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
   A very great and  manifest change, for the
better, has taken  place in his health, within the
last four years, as is well known to all his per-
sonal friends.  His complexion has now  that
clearness and freshness and ruddiness,  and his
countenance much of that plumpness and ani-
mation which belong to early youth.  And he
has repeatedly assured me  that he never enjoy-
ed life so well before. 
1G7
                          New-York, April 3d. 1833.
   Mr. Graham,—Sir,
     Exceedingly reluctant, as I am, to hold up to view my
'own experience, even in a good cause, yet I yield to your
'solicitation and  the wish of  friends, in presenting to you
the following brief sketch of my habits and course of life,—
especially as  respects  my  regimen and health;  being
deeply penetrated with the conviction that the cause,  in
which you are engaged, is of very great importance to the
I temporal and  spiritual welfare  of mankind,  and humbly
hoping that the statement I am about to make, may  in
• some degree serve the interests of that cause.
   During my childhood and youth, my  health  was such
. as is ordinarily considered good ; and although I was sub-
ject to those occasional indispositions and ailments which
 are so common  in civic life, yet till the age  of forty,  I
continued to enjoy what we usually call good health.
   I ought however to state,  that at the  age of  twenty, I
 formed the pernicious habit of  chewing and smoking to-
 bacco.   My dietetic habits, after I became established in
 life, were not restrained, and yet not what was consider-
 ed,  by any means, excessive.  I ate promiscuously of
 such food as ordinarily comes upon the table of those who
 have the means and the disposition " to live well:" using
 brandy and water, and sometimes wine  or other liquor at
 my dinner; and occasionally also at other times of the day.
 After I was forty years old, my health  began  to be  less
 uniformly good,—I began to  feel some of those ailments
 and infirmities, which indicate that we have past the me-
 ridian of our days, and are commencing the decline of
 life.   From about this period, I almost every spring and
autumn, had a turn of sickness, attended with severe op-
   Eression of the chest, asthmatic  difficulty of breathing,
   ead-ache, &c. &c. which  obliged me to have recourse
 to medical advice and remedies.  These difficulties grad-
 ually increased  upon me,—becoming more and more se-
 vere. I was also much afflicted with depression of spirits,
 and rel igious despondency,—often suffering great and pain-
 ful doubts concerning the genuineness of my faith and the
 foundation of my hopes; although I had been a professor
 of religion from about the age of  thirty, and many years
 also, an officer in the church.   Suspecting that the effects
 of tobacco were injurious to my system, I abandoned the
 use of it entirely, about the age of fifty.  This reformation 
168
in my habits proved very beneficial to me.   My appetite
became more natural and uniform, and my food was taken
with much better relish.  Still however, I was  not re-
stored to health.   My periodical turns of sickness regu-
larly recurred, and my infirmities gradually increased upon
me with increasing years.
  When I was about sixty  years old, seeing the  evil ef-
fects  of intemperate drinking in others, and suspecting
that my own health was not benefited by the use of alco-
holic liquors of any kind, and sensible  that no one, who
used them,  was beyond  the danger of excess, and that
they did no good,  I concluded that it would be decidedly
best for me to abstain wholly from the use of them.  And
although I had by no means been, what was considered
an immoderate drinker, yet, contrary to  long-established
and almost universal opinion on this subject, old as I was,
and long as I had been accustomed  to the  moderate use
of ardent spirit, wine and beer, I was decidedly benefited
by a total abstinence from all  such liquors.   My appetite
and the relish of my food were still farther improved, and
in many other respects my health  was better; and 1  suf-
fered less depression of spirits  and religioifs doubt and
despondency than before.  Nevertheless, I continued to
experience my semi-annual returns of sickness,  and ex-
pected them every  spring and autumn,  as a matter of
course.  My usual food was  what is commonly called.
good  and nourishing.  My dinner table was always well
supplied With flesh-meat, and  I generally had a little beef
steak or some other flesh-meat at breakfast, and occa-
sionally a little smoked beef or tongue, at tea.
  As the oppression which .1  suffered in my chest—diffi-
culty of breathing,  bead-ache  &c. not only continued,
but, by reason of  my increasing  age, became more  dis-
tressing, I was induced, at the age of sixty-seven, to make
an entire change in my diet.  I abandoned at once the
use of tea and coffee, and of all animal food, and put my-
self on a diet of bread, and porridge made of Indian meal
and water.  For a while at first, I felt some hankering
after the dishes which I  had discarded ; and experienced
some lassitude in  consequence of the absence of more
stimulating food;  but in the course of about three months,
these all passed  away, and I  found my health improving
exceedingly.
  It is now about four years since I adopted  this  simple 
169
regimen, and my health has been continually improving
to the present time.   I have not experienced a single turn
of my periodical sickness, nor indeed any  other illness or
ailment, except perhaps, two or three times, a slight cold,
lince I  commenced my present mode  of  living.  There
has not been a day, during the last four years, in which I
have not been able to be abroad,  let the weather be what
it might:—nor have I hesitated to be out nights, habitually,
till eight or nine o'clock.   I rise early; and at five o'clock
in the morning, during the longer days of the year,  and
at six during the shorter ones, I go out regularly to attend
a prayer meeting.  When desirable, I  can walk ten, and
sometimes fifteen miles a day, without any painful sense
of fatigue.
  During the prevalence of the  Cholera last summer, a
great many,  in my immediate neighborhood, were  sick
and died with that awful disease: and I visited several of
the sick, and was much  exposed ; but through the whole
season, was perfectly well, not having the slightest symp-
toms of Cholera, nor any other indisposition.
  Indian meal porridge and bread still constitute the prin-
cipal articles ofmy diet.   1 however occasionally eat plain
boiled rice, potatoes, and other simple vegetables, and a
little milk.   I think the bread made  of  unbolted wheat
meal,mixed with indian, decidedly preferable to any other,
for health and enjoyment.  My appetite is excellent, and
I now enjoy my plain  and simple fare, far better than  I
ever did the richer dishes  of my former days.   Indeed  I
 now habitually and uniformly  experience a high  degree
 of enjoyment of my food,  and hope I am truly thankful
 for the discovery that such simple fare is so conducive to
 health and comfort.
   My bodily strength and activity and general vigor have
 improved very much on my new regimen, and I am now
 quite as fleshy as is desirable,  and  enjoy  much better
  health than is common to men,  considered  well, at my
  period of life.
   Some of my friends still say to me, " you do very wrong
  to live  on such plain fare: you are an old man and re-
  quire more stimulating food, and a glass or two of wine
  with your dinner."   But I can say to them;—when did you
  ever see  me so perfectly healthy and so fleshy as I am
  now, though upwards  of seventy years of age? and why
  should I forsake a  regimen on which I  enjoy myself, in 
170
every respect, so much better than I did before I adopted
it, and return to the use of flesh and wine ? The truth is,
mankind are in a gieat error on this subject.   Old men
no more require wine and stimulating food than children
do.  Pure water is altogether the best beverage for human
beings at every period of life.
  The effect on my mind is equally  happy.  I enjoy a
continual serenity and cheerfulness of spirit. My reli-
gious views and  hopes and  consolations are more clear
and  steadfast and abundant.   To those turns of doubt
and despondency, which before afflicted me, 1 am now
almost a stranger:  and I am  enabled to maintain  "a clo-
ser walk with God,"  and to perceive spiritual things more
spiritually; and the beauty of holiness appears to me more
exceedingly beautiful.
  O,  that all  professing Christians, especially, and the
whole human family were properly  enlightened on this
great and important subject of true  "temperance  in all
things."  O, that men would use the common bounties
of Providence, as  well as the riches of grace, as not abu-
sing them.  Then might this world experience the univer-
sal reign of righteousness and peace and true joy. But
while human beings seek their  supreme enjoyment in
the indulgences of appetite, they lessen even the pleas-
ures of the table, and they must expect from such sowing
to the flesh, to reap depravity and disease and suffering ;
and moral  and spiritual darkness, and untimely   death.
For " to be carnally minded is death: but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace."   " From whence come wars
and fightings"  among men, in families as well as in  states?
—" Come they not hence, even of their lusts that  war in
their members?''
  With a deep sense of gratitude to Heaven, for the com-
forts I enjoy,  I fervently pray that  the cause  of  health
and  longevity, and of moral  and spiritual purity,  which
you-advocate, may be abundantly prospered, and  that  it
may go on with increasing success, till mankind generally
shall understand the laws of God  in their own natures, as
well as in his revealed word, and by obeying them, and his
most holy will in all things, attain that fulness of temporal
good and eternal happiness, which he so benevolently of-
fers for their enjoyment.
         Yours truly,
                     RICHARD CUNNINGHAM. 
171
          CASE OF JOHN LINTON.
  While making a tour through Pennsylvania,
as the general agent of the State Temperance
Society, in the summer of 1330,  I stopped for
a few days to rest myself, during the excessively
hot weather of July, at the hospitable mansion
of my highly esteemed friend,  Dr.  John II.
Gordon, in Bucks county.  As I  was  sitting on
the piazza one morning, my attention was ar-
rested by the sight of  a person on horseback,
who came galloping across the fields,  and who
seemed  to manage his spirited steed,  with all
the ease and grace of a  trained equestrian.
  " We have company in prospect,"  said I to
the  doctor, who at that moment  stepped upon
the piazza.
  " Yes," replied he, peering inquisitively over
his glasses;  " but who  can it be ?"
  " He sits well upon his horse," said I, " and
rides with spirit; I suspect it must  be some
one of your  chivalrous young bloods."
  " Upon my word," replied  the doctor,  " I
believe it is my worthy  neighbor, John Linton !
—indeed it is he—and I am glad  of it.   He is
coming over this morning to have  a  talk with
you."
  " And who is your worthy neighbor, John
Linton," I inquired, with some curiosity.
  " A very sensible and intelligent old gentle-
man, who resides on his  farm,  about a mile
from this," answered the doctor.   "  You will
be much interested in  his  conversation: and
his experience will  afford you some  valuable
facts."
  " Old gentleman !" exclaimed I, with aston- 
172
ishment, " I should  take him to be a man in
the very pride and buoyancy of youth."
  " True,  he  has the sprightliness and viva-
city of youth in an old body," replied the doctor.
  By this time the horseman came wheeling
upon a full gallop up to the steps of the piazza;
and suddenly checking his speed, hedismounted
with the elasticity and vigor of a young man.
I saw that he had indeed past the meridian of
life;  yet  his  movements,  his   activity,  the
sprightly animation of his  address, the bright
and intelligent look of his eye and countenance,
discovered much of the spirit, and vivacity of
early life.   I perceived from his style that he
was a member of the society of Friends ; and
soon discovered that he was a man of no ordi-
nary intelligence.
   After expressing his interest and satisfaction
in a lecture he had heard me deliver a few even-
ings before, he went on to say that the  princi-
ples I had laid down, coincided exactly  with
his own experience.  He  then gave me sub-
stantially  the  following narrative :—
   " Having received a good education for a far-
mer's son, I was called early to take an active
part in the affairs of society, and continued for
many years to fill various civil offices of the town-
ship  and county.  By such means,  I was, of
course, brought  much into public intercourse
with men of  all characters, conditions, and
habits ; and to some extent, obliged to conform
to the customs of those with whom I was under
the  necessity  of  associating.  At court times,
and on  other  public occasions, I  was in the
habit of eating at the  hoieU and taverns, where 
173
the tables were  loaded with a great variety of
richly prepared and  tempting food, and abun-
dantly furnished with liquors of different kinds.
I did not at  the time,  consider myself as  ap-
proaching to the  character of  an intemperate
man in any  respect, yet  I freely partook of
the bounties  of the table,  and to a moderate
extent, indulged in the use of brandy and water,
wine, and  other  exhilirating drinks.  These
things were  by no means calculated  to  sim-
plify my own  domestic board :  but on the
contrary, caused  me the more to desire what is
commonly called good living,  at home.   With
active and industrious  habits upon my farm, I
enjoyed what is usually considered good health,
till after I had passed my fortieth year.   I then
began to experience slight infirmities,  and to
feel varioussymptoms of declining health slowly
gathering upon me.  At first, I paid little atten-
tion to these indispositions ;  but  after awhile
they became so troublesome, that I was induced
 to consult physicians.   Many of the prescrip-
 tions which I tried seemed to  afford a tempo-
rary  alleviation,  but  on the  whole  I  con-
 tinued to grow more  and more  unwell,  until
 I found myself  suffering under severe infirmi-
 ties, and unable  to attend to any kind  of  busi-
 ness.   I was then told  that I had past the noon
 of life,  and was  becoming aged :  and  that my
 constitution was much impaired, and my body
 worn out by the  exceedingly active and labo-
 rious habits and exposures of my past  years.
 This afforded me little consolation, and was in
 no degree calculated to assuage  my pains, or
 render my  decrepitude  more tolerable.  In
                     15* 
174
spite of the various remedies which I contin-
ued to try, I still became more and more afflict-
ed and infirm.  I was now approaching my six-
tieth year, and was so completely broken down
with disease and suffering, that it did not seem
possible, that I could  survive  many  months
longer.  Nothing  seemed  to have power to
remove my disorders and restore me to health.
My limbs swelled excessively:  indeed  1 was
obliged to swathe my legs and feet to  prevent
the  skin  from bursting ;  and  my arms  and
hands were so  much  swolen,  and  so exceed-
ingly sore  and painful, that I was not able, to
raise my hand to my head.  In fact, my whole
body was so sore  and disordered that I had no
comfort in  any  position.  My sight failed to
such an extent, that I  could with difficulty see
to read with the  best glasses I could procure ;
 and  my mind was very  much  impaired and
 feeble.  Still I  continued, with the  help  of
 crutches, to hobble about my room a little, and
 when the weather was fine, I would crawl out,
 and  with  great difficulty climb into my chaise
 and ride  a short distance ; but never suffering
 the horse to go faster than a walk, and always
 using care to avoid striking the  wheels against
 the stones.
   In this miserable condition, I took a fancy
 to seek amusement  for  my tedious  hours, in
 reading medical   works: and I had  not  long
 occupied my mind in  this way, before I was
 fully convinced  that  the whole course which
 I was pursuing for the recovery of my health,
 was  utterly  wrong,  and directly  calculated
 to aggravate and increase my disorders  and 
175
sufferings,   I  therefore  determined at once
to make an entire change, in my regimen.  I
threw  away all my medicine, wine  bitters,
brandy tonics,  and  every other stimulating and
heating substance : abandoned  the use of all
animal food, and put myself strictly upon a diet
of pure water, bread,  and  other  plain,  and
mild  vegetable food, and kept up my exer-
cise   as  before.   This  great  and  sudden
change gave much alarm to my friends,  who
assured me that my new regimen would inevi-
tably and rapidly hasten me  to the grave.  But
my mind was fully made up on the subject, and
I was not to be shaken from my purpose.
  At the end of the first three months I could
scarcely perceive any decided change  for  the
betler.  The anguish of my body was somewhat
diminished, my pains were less acute, my limbs
were not quite so much swolen, my sleep was
more sound and refreshing,  and my mind was
more clear and serene.   Still however, the im-
provementof my health in all these respects was
very small: but before another three months had
elapsed, the beneficial effects of my new regimen,
were far  more manifest and certain :—all  my
complaints and ailments'were much;diminished,
and my strength and activity were considera-
bly  improved.  I  could  use my  limbs  very
well, and with little difficulty, mount my horse
and ride him  at a  smart  trot.   My sight  im-
proved astonishingly, and became so perfectly
restored that  I could  easily  read the finest
print, without the help of glasses:  but the most
wonderful effect was  produced  on my mind,
 which became far  more clear  and active  and 
176
vigorous than  it  had ever been before.  In-
deed, no one who has  not experienced the
same, can have  any  adequate  conception  of
the real intellectual luxury which  I  enjoyed.
It seemed as though my  soul was perfectly free
from all the clogging embarrassments and in-
fluences of the body.  I could  command and
apply my thoughts at will;  and was  able  to
study and investigate the most abstruse sub-
jects, and to write with  an ease and perspica-
city and satisfaction  which I had never before
known, or had any idea of.  In truth, if noth-
ing else were to be gained by such a course of
living, than the  mental  clearness  and delight
which I enjoyed, it were fully worth the expe-
riment.   But this was  not  all with  me.  In
every  respect I  was a gainer.  Before twelve
months had passed in this way, I was perfectly
restored to health : and seemed to have renew-
ed my  life.  I  was  entirely free  from every
pain and ailment, and  was very active,  vigo-
rous and more serenely and truly cheerful and
happy than ever before since my  childhood.
   Lately, I  have not  been quite so strict in
my regimen.  I have occasionally for conven-
ience sake yielded to the customs of society,
and eaten a little flesh: but I always find that
I am the most active and cheerful, and  partic-
ularly, that my mind is  the most clear and vig-
 orous,  when I most  strictly adhere to my sim-
ple diet of toater, bread,  and  other vegetable
food.   In fact,  I have  never  felt in every re-
spect of  body and mind so  completely well,
and buoyant and cheerful and happy,  as I did
during the latter part of the first year of  my
new mode of living,  before I had deviated in 
177
any degree from the  strictness  of my simple
regimen.  Still however I have  been careful
not to deviate  so far as materially to  impair
my health.
  After having passed my sixtieth year, and
when I had been for a considerable time unac-
customed to labor; my sons being very much
in need of help, I  took my cradle  and went
into the harvest field to assist  them.  My
friends thought it would not do for me, and said
it might make me sick, and perhapg  cut short
my life.  I was, however, very little apprehen-
sive of evil; and persisted in my undertaking.
My two sons were  full-grown  robust  young
men, and we had also  a stout  laboring man  in
our employ.  They led  the  course,  and told
me that I could follow on leisurely behind,  as
I found it most for my comfort.   But much  to
their surprise, I held my way with them all day,
without any oppressive  sense  of fatigue.   I
drank nothing during the day but pure water,
and that only once in the forenoon and once in
the afternoon;  while  my three  fellow-labo-
rers drank their spirits and water four or five
times each half of the. day:  and the next day
I felt no inconvenience from my labor.
   I am now sixty three years old and  continue
to observe my simple regimen with considera-
ble strictness; dividing my time  between read-
ing, writing and exercise.  My sight,  hearing
and other senses are about as good as they ever
were;  my  mind is clear and active, my spirit
serene and cheerful, and  my body healthy and
vigorous: and I enjoy life far better than I did
in those earlier years, when I had much more 
178
intercourse with the bus)' world, and indulged
freely in what most people consider the com-
forts and blessings of the earth."
  After having spent two or three hours with
me in interesting and instructing conversation
concerning his own  experience  and obversa-
tions in life,  the sprightly old gentleman took
his leave of me, and with the activity and vigor
of a young man, mounted his horse and gallo-
ped away; leaving me  to admire in him a re-
markable instance of the renovating powers of
nature, when  undisturbed by those irritating
causes which  are continually and  almost uni-
versally operating in civic life, abridging the
period  of human existence,  and filling the
world with disease and suffering and crime.
   This  very  intelligent  and  interesting old
 gentleman has only  to continue with strictness,
 the simple regimen under which he recovered
 his health, and he has a fair prospect of num-
 bering thirty  or forty years more, of healthy,
 and serene, and cheerful, and happy existence
 upon earth,   Apart  from the consequences  of
 human conduct, there is no more necessity for
 a man's dying between the periods of fifty and
 a hundred years, than there is between the pe-
 riods of ten and fifty: nor  is there any more
 necessity for  his becoming decrepid, and help-
 less and gloomy, and incapable  of  enjoying
 life in a high degree, and continuing to be an
 object  of enjoyment  and  instruction  to his
 friends and to society.   But " the minding  of
 the flesh is death; and he  that soweth to the
 flesh shall of  the flesh reap  corruption." 
 
 
 
■*■	
¥'	H
#	
J^T^C '	
.j»..''.:-tt<tf*KVi'
.-•  ,-. v»
■-. c-* v pv -
■a -f.
m
W. ■**<*'
\4M*
■:&'''■$-:.'-}l'ir*'*   '••>


,:.•*
a*-,
,*■      ^
^■■kN
**■  *t?:«