LONGEVITY OF 'ANIMALS. 293 



kept in a dormant state, without the extinction of life, and 

 this fact seems to account, in some measure, for the finding 

 of toads imbedded in stone. 



' Many animals of the lower classes are also capable of be- 

 coming torpid. Several of the mollusca, spiders, the house-fly, 

 the cricket, &c., are known, under favorable circumstances,^ 

 pass the winter in a torpid state, and revive in the spring. 



' In these different ways, then, different animals are enabled 

 to avoid the dangers to which they are exposed from the vary- 

 ing temperature of the seasons ; 1st. By a change in the quan- 

 tity and color of their covering ; 2dly. By periodical migra- 

 tions ; and 3dly. By passing the winter in a lethargic state.' 



CHAPTER XIV. 



OP THE LONGEVITY AND DISSOLUTION OP ORGANIZED 

 BODIES. 



IT is a law of nature, though a melancholy one, that all 

 organized bodies should be dissolved. The periods of disso- 

 lution, however, are as various as the species, and the inten- 

 tions ot nature in producing them. 



In the human kind, the brevity of life is regarded as an ob- 

 ject of regret. One half of mankind die before they arrive 

 at eight years of age. From that early period to eighty, be- 

 side the destruction of war, and other accidents, nature kills 

 them annually in millions. Some instances may be given of 

 men whose lives were prolonged beyond the usual period of 

 human existence. Such men are not to be envied ; nor should 

 they be considered as favorites of nature. With respect to 

 maturity of judgment and a knowledge of the world, no man 

 can be said to exist till he passes thirty years of age. Give 

 him thirty or thirty-five more, and, in general, both mind and 

 body are visibly declined. Those people, therefore, who 

 arrive at an extraordinary age, may be said to exist, but they 

 do not live. All intellectual enjoyments and exertions, which 

 constitute the chief dignity and happiness of man, are gone. 

 There are exceptions ; but these exceptions are confirmations 

 25* 



