LIFE AND DEATH. 337 



expectation. Into the same time also fell Anna, the pro 

 phetess, who could not possibly be less than a hundred 

 years old, for she had been seven years a wife, about eighty- 

 four years a widow, besides the years of her virginity, and 

 the time that she lived after her prophecy of our Saviour; 

 she was a holy woman, and passed her days in fastings and 

 prayers. 



6. The long lives of men mentioned in heathen authors 

 have no great certainty in them; both for the intermixture 

 of fables, whereunto those kind of relations were very prone, 

 and for their false calculation of years. Certainly of the 

 Egyptians we find nothing of moment in those works that are t 

 extant, as touching long life ; for their kings which reigned 

 longest did not exceed fifty, or five and fifty years ; which 

 is no great matter, seeing many at this day attain to those 

 years. But the Arcadian kings are fabulously reported to 

 have lived very long. Surely that country was mountainous, 

 full of flocks of sheep, and brought forth most wholesome 

 food, notwithstanding, seeing Pan was their god, we may 

 conceive that all things about them were panic and vain, 

 and subject to fables. 



7. Numa, king of the Romans, lived to eighty years ; a 

 man peaceable, contemplative, and much devoted to reli 

 gion. Marcus Valerius Corvinus saw a hundred years 

 complete, there being betwixt his first and sixth consulship 

 forty-six years ; a man valorous, affable, popular, and al 

 ways fortunate. 



8. Solon of Athens, the lawgiver, and one of the seven 

 wise men, lived above eighty years, a man of a high courage, 

 but popular, and affected to his country; also learned, 

 given to pleasures, and a soft kind of life. Epimenides, the 

 Cretian, is reported to have lived a hundred and fifty-seven 

 years ; the matter is mixed with a prodigious relation, for 

 fifty-seven of those years he is said to have slept in a cave. 

 Half an age after, Xenophon, the Colophonian, lived a hun 

 dred and two years, or rather more; for at the age of 

 twenty-five years he left his country, seventy-seven com 

 plete years he travelled, and after that returned ; but how 

 long he lived after his return appears not ; a man no less 

 wandering in mind than in body ; for his name was changed 

 for the madness of his opinions, from Xenophanes to Xeno- 

 manes ; a man, no doubt, of a vast conceit, and that minded 

 nothing but-infinitum. 



9. Anacreon, the poet, lived eighty years, and somewhat 

 better, a man lascivious, voluptuous, and given to drink. 



VOL. xiv. z 



