Apollonius of Tyana, an accomplished man, endowed with extraordinary powers, both of body and mind, who by the Christians was considered a magician, and by the Greeks and Romans, as a messenger of the gods; in his regimen a follower of Pythagoras, and a friend to travelling, was above 100 years of age.

of

Zeno, the founder of the stoical sect, and a master in the art of self-denial, attained nearly to the age 100 years; and his immediate successor and disciple Cleanthes, his 99th.

The philosopher Demonax, a man of the most severe manners and uncommon stoical apathy, lived likewise to 100.

Pindar, who begins his poems by declaring water to be the best liquid in nature, lived to the age of

86.

Sophocles, the tragedian, at 90 years of age, produced his Edipus, one of the most elaborate compositions of the dramatic kind, that the human genius ever perfected, and lived to near 100.

The philosopher Gorgias, who declared he had never eaten or done any thing for the mere gratification of his appetite, lived 107 years.

Hippocrates, the father of physic, lived 100 years. The amiable Xenophon, who had written so much in praise of temperance and virtue, lived above 90. Plato, one of the most divine geniuses that ever existed, and a friend to rest and calm meditation, lived to the age of 81.

Agesilaus, whose character is so beautifully pourtrayed by Zenophon, led armies at 80, established Nectanabis in his kingdom, and at 84, on his return from Egypt, finished a life adorned with singular glory.

Xenocrates, a severe and rigid moralist, gave numerous proofs of the benevolence and humanity of his disposition towards all creatures. A sparrow, pursued by a hawk, flew to him for refuge; he sheltered it in his bosom, and released it as soon as the danger was over.-Ælian, b. xiii, c. 31.

Cicero, in his treatise on old age, introduces Cato the censor, in his eighty-fourth year, haranguing and assisting with his counsels, the senate, the people, his clients and his friends.

It is surprising to what a great age the Eastern Christians, who retired from persecution into the deserts of Egypt and Arabia, lived healthful on a very little food.

The famous Lewis Cornaro, the Venetian, was of an infirm constitution till forty; at fourscore he published his celebrated book, entitled, "Sure and certain Methods of attaining a long and healthy life," and after having passed his hundredth year, died in his elbow-chair without pain.

Aurengzebe, according to Gemelli, from the time that he usurped the throne, never once tasted either flesh, fish, or strong liquors, and died in 1707, nearly 100 years old.

Our happy island, in those instances where the rules of sobriety have been uniformly regarded, can vie with Greece and Rome or any other region, in examples of longevity. Plutarch represents the Britons, as living several of them beyond the age of 120; for Diodorus Siculus honours the primitive inhabitants of this isle with this testimony, that they were distinguished for the simplicity of their manners, and were happy strangers to the profligacy and depravity of modern times, that the island swarmed with multitudes, that their food was simple and far remov

ed from that luxury which is inseparable from opu. lence.-Diod. Siculus, lib. iv. p. 301. edit. Rhodomanni Hanov. 1604.

Buchanan informs us of one Laurence, who preserved himself to 140, by the mere force of temperance and labour.

Spotiswoode mentions one Kentigem (afterwards, called St. Mongah, from whom a well in Wales is named) who lived 185 years, never tasting wine or strong drink, and sleeping on the hard cold ground.

Henry Jenkins, fisherman, of Allerton upon Swale, in Yorkshire, died in 1670, at the very advanced age of 169 years. Dr. Robinson says, that his diet was coarse and sour, that is plain and cooling.

We find that it is not those who have lived on flesh, but on vegetables, pulse, fruit, and milk, who attained to the greatest age. Lord Bacon mentions a man of 120, who, during his whole life, never used any other food than milk.

Thomas Parr, of Winnington, Shropshire, died in the year 1635, in the 153d of his age. His diet was old cheese, milk, coarse bread, small beer and whey. In Parr we have a corroborating instance that the life of man, by attention to the laws of nature, might be extended to an unusual length; for, on his body being opened by Dr. Harvey, it was found to be in the most perfect state, the only cause of his death being a mere plethora, brought on by changing a pure air and a plain wholesome diet for the putrid thick air, and luxurious living of London.

Richard Lloyd, a poor labouring man, born within two miles of Montgomery, who lived to the age of 133, and was a strong upright man, could walk well, had a good set of teeth, aud no gray hairs;

could hear distinctly, and read without spectacles: his food was bread and cheese, and butter; and his drink, whey, butter-milk, or water, and nothing else; but being, by a neighbouring gentleman, persuaded to eat flesh-meat, and drink malt liquor, he very soon after died.

Hobbes, the celebrated philosopher of Malmesbury, who was as remarkable for the temperance of his life, as the singularity of his opinions, died in the year 1679, in the 92d year of his age.

John Hussey of Sydenham, Kent, died in 1748, aged 116 years. For upwards of fifty years his breakfast had been balm-tea, sweetened with honey; and his dinner, pudding; by which he acquired regular health.

Francis Secardi Hongo, who made distilled water his constant drink, without the addition of wine, or any strong liquor to the last, lived, with remarkably good health, to the age of 115 years.-Med. Tran. vol. i, p. 22.

The father of Mrs. Wright, well known as an ingenious modeller in wax, was esteemed in the part of America where he resided, a very rich but honest man. In the course of his reflections on the nature of things, he perceived that God cannot have permit, ted men to spill the blood of animals for their daily food. He, therefore, neither ate flesh himself, nor permitted it to be eaten by any one within his gates. His ten children were twice ten years old before they tasted flesh-New Prose Bath Guide for 1778, by Philip Thicknesse, esq.

Henry Welby lived in Grub-street, forty-four years, unseen by any, and in all that space did not taste either flesh or fish.

Robert Cooke, esq. lived near Wexford, the latter

He was a rigid Pythago

end of the 17th century. rean, never drinking any liquor besides water, nor eating any food which had ever had sensitive life. He would not wear any thing which had been produced at the expense of the life of any sensitive creature. His clothes, hat, shoes, stockings, bed, &c. were composed of linen. The writer of an account of this gentleman in the European Mag. vol. xlv, p. 252, makes the following comment. "It would be a task to which, perhaps, the most pervading talents are unequal, to attempt to account for those anomalies of the human mind which have appeared, at times, in all ages and nations, from the period of the philosopher who denominated the sect, to the present hour, and which certainly, if we consider our cruelelty to the brute creation, and our shameful prodigality of their innocent lives, if it were a fault, was so much on the right side, had such a leaning towards virtue, that Lucullus, Apicius, Heliogabalus, or all the good livers of antiquity, nay all their modern disciples, from Duck or Hoglanes, west; to the Poultry, Fish-street, &c. east, will be inclined to pass a slight censure on his ashes, which, I understand from a medical man, notwithstanding his absurd regimen, were kept out of their terrene mattress almost a century; and I am of opinion, that he had the audacity to live in order to confute and dishonour the prognostication which was launched at him, that his abstinence would soon bring him to the grave, or, in the vernacular idiom, that he was killing himself by inches." Tho' it be not easy to understand what this writer means by first confessing that he and his brethren are guilty of cruelty and shameful prodigality in the sacrifice of innocent lives, and then saying that those who avoid such crimes err on the right