170 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



struck with the anomaly ; and the tongue cannot 

 but exclaim, "Why is this so?" How is it that 

 the system of man of man, the master-miracle of 

 creation how comes it, that the system of man is 

 for ever going wrong, while all around him goes 

 right ? The natural average of human life, we are 

 told on high authority, is "threescore years and 

 ten." How happens it, then, that "ahout one- 

 fourth of the children that are born die within the 

 first eleven months of life; one-third within twenty- 

 three months ; and one-half before they reach their 

 eighth year ? that two-thirds of mankind die be- 

 fore the thirty-ninth year, and three-fourths before 

 the fifty-first? so that, as Buffon observes, of nine 

 children that are born, only one arrives at the age 

 of seventy-three; of thirty, only one lives to the 

 age of eighty; while, out of two hundred and 

 ninety-one, one only lives to the age of ninety ; 

 and, in the last place, out of eleven thousand nine 

 hundred and ninety-six, only one drags on a lan- 

 guid existence to the age of a hundred years. The 

 mean term of life is, according to the same author, 

 eight years in a new-born child. As the child 

 grows older, his existence becomes more secure ; 

 and after the first year, he may reasonably be ex- 

 pected to live to the age of thirty-three. Life 



