148 LECTURES. 



wliicli the spire and the dome, the pointed and the circuhar arch are 

 continued with endless modification, to the crystal palace and iron 

 buildings of modern times. 



But during all this period comparatively little attention was paid 

 to the question of air, which has been so much the subject of later in- 

 vestigation. Buildings were at first too imperfect in their structure 

 and fittings to form those air-tight receptacles that have multiplied 

 so largely in our day. The same resources and machinery were not 

 available for their construction. The habits and occupations of the 

 people were difiererut. Few read, and still fewer wrote, till the press 

 began to diffuse its influence among mankind. The illumination of 

 rooms at night with an artificial daylight by means of gas is but a 

 recent invention. 



But with all these inventions the duration of human life has not 

 increased, except in local and special instances. Passing over the 

 times of the ancient patriarchs, human life seems still, on the whole, to 

 have been diminishing from the time when it is generally supposed to 

 have been reduced to threescore and ten. How many places are there 

 where from a quarter to a half of the population now die within from five 

 to ten years ; born, as it were, to pass through an infancy of suffering 

 and sorrow, and then to disappear from this transitory scene. And 

 then, if we look to adults, is it not true that many, so far from at- 

 taining threescore and ten, are cut off before they are twenty-five? An 

 age of fifty years is beyond the average, and threescore and ten, or up- 

 wards, is still more rarely attained. But is there any just foundation 

 for the belief that threescore and ten is the allotted period for man's 

 existence ? Is the passage from the Psalms correctly interpreted to 

 which this alleged maxim is usimlly ascribed ? He contended that it 

 was not ; that Biblical critics usually attributed this psalm to Moses, 

 believing that it was written by him in the wilderness, when the 

 Israelites were exposed to great suffering, and as yet he had met with 

 no clergyman of any denomination who was disposed to insist on the 

 popular interpretation usually ascribed to it. He thought the subject 

 one of great practical importance ; that the question should be set on 

 a right footing ; that if it were not only possible, but probable, that a 

 marked extension of five, ten, fifteen, or five-and-twenty years could 

 be given to human life by attention to the moral, religious, and 

 physical elements that entered into it, nothing would contribute more 

 to place the whole subject of the care of health, the increase of 

 comibrt, and the prevention of disease on a better footing. It would 

 regulate, or at least afl'ect, the period of infancy and education, the 

 time of entering on business, and form an element in all subsequent 

 concerns of life. Above all, it would be one of the strongest checks 

 upon that system of fast living and that incessant strain upon the 

 nervous system that was so marked in thousands and tens of thou- 

 sands of cases, especially in populous cities, whether we looked to 

 London or Paris, to New York or St. Petersburgh. ^ Vain would 

 the attempt be to extend the duration of man's life if the nervous 

 system was exhausted, whether from an honorable ambition, an" 



