372 Dr. Fothergill on Longevity • 
of the human race, than, perhaps, was ever 
before exhibited !* 
That fo complicated a machine, as the human 
body, fo delicate in its texture, and fo exquifitely 
formed in all its parts, diould continue, for fo 
many years to perform its various funftions, 
even under the moft prudent conduct, is not a 
little furprifing: but that it fhould ever hold 
out to any advanced period, under all the rude 
fhocks it fo often meets with from riot and 
intemperance, which lay it open to all the 
various “ ills that fiefh is heir to,” is dill more 
truly miraculous! But here, perhaps, it may 
be alledged, that it never can be fuppofed, all 
the long livers purfued one uniform, regular 
courfe of life, fince it is well known, that fome 
of the mod noted ones were fometimes guilty 
of great deviations from drift temperance and 
regularity. Let not this, however, encourage 
the giddy libertines, of the prefent age, to hope 
to render their continued fcenes of intemperance 
* 
* I fay apparently , becaufe mankind, in reality, have 
been equally prone to vice and folly in all ages; only thefe 
have alfumed different appearances, according to the tafte 
and manners of the times : not that the human heart has 
been fucceflively growing more and more depraved, as the 
Poet fatyrically exclaims, 
iEtas parentum, pejor avis, tulit 
Nos nequiores ; mox daturos 
Progeniem vitiofiorem ! Hor. Lib. III. Ode 6. 
and 
