Dr. Fothergill on Longevity. 37 1 
nature Teems to have defigned! Man is, by 
nature, a field-animal, and Teems deftined to rile 
with the Tun, and to Tpend a large portion of 
his time in the open air, to inure his body to 
robuft exercffes, and the 'inclemency of the 
feafons, and to make a plain homely repaft, 
only when hunger dictates. But art has ftudi- 
oufly defeated the kind intentions of nature; 
and by enflaving him to all the blandifhments 
of fenfe, has left him, alas ! an eafy viftim to 
folly and caprice ! To enumerate the various 
abufes, which take place from the earlieft in¬ 
fancy, and which are continued through the 
fucceeding ftages of modifh life, would carry 
me far beyond my prefent intention. Suffice it 
to obferve, that they prevail more particularly 
among people, who are the moft highly polifhed 
and refined. To compare their artificial mode 
of life, with that of nature, or even with the 
long livers in the lift, would, probably, afford 
a very ftriking contraft ; and, at the fame time, 
fupply an additional reafon, why, in very large 
cities, inftances of longevity are To very rare. 
Of late years, the increafing luxury and diffipa- 
tion of the age, no longer confined to the 
metropolis, have Tpread their contagion far 
and wide into the country, fo as to afford the 
fage divine, and Tpeculative moralift, a more 
melancholy profpetft of the apparent degeneracy 
B b 2 of 
