590 THE MOUNTAIN. 



only four lived to be eighty, namely, Gordian, Valerian, Anas- 

 tasius, Justinian." This holds good of the great ecclesiastical 

 representatives ; of over three hundred Popes only five having 

 arrived at eighty. Monks and hermits, on the contrary, by 

 temperance and rectitude, strict regimen and prayer, includ- 

 ing the saving virtues of starvation and devout contempla- 

 tion of the umbilicus, have arrived at the patriarchal num- 

 bers. St. David survived 146; Paul, the hermit, 113; St. 

 Anthony, 105 ; John, the apostle, 93 ; Theodore, of Can- 

 terbury, 88, and Athanasius and Jerome, 80. Philosophers 

 profound, it seems, attain great age, especially such as are 

 " occupied with the study of nature, and the discovery of 

 new and divine truths." This is true from the Greek to the 

 present time. From the recitation of records, it would seem 

 that poets and artists have long leases from their " occupa- 

 tion, which leads them to be conversant with the sports of 

 foncy, and self-created worlds, and whose whole life, in the 

 roperest sense, is an agreeable dream." It appears, from 

 the tables, that doctors are the shortest livers of all; "for, 

 at any rate, mortality is greater among practical physi- 

 cians than perhaps among men of any other profession." 

 "Physicians, who so abundantly dispense to others the means 

 of health and life, ought to claim here a distinguished place. 

 But, unfortunately, this is not the case. It may be said of 

 them in general : 'Aliis inserviendo consumunter ; aliis me- 

 dendo moriuntur.' In serving others they are consumed; 

 in healing others they are destroyed." 



By consulting the highly-interesting table of Erasmus 

 Wilson,* of the ages of medical philosophers, it will be seen 

 that from Hippocrates to Boerhaave the range has been 

 from seventy to ninety-three ; Hippocrates only attaining 

 109, which, in the "venerable predecessor," was achieved by 

 " his whole life being employed in the study of nature, in 

 traveling, and in visiting the sick ; passing more of his time 

 in small villages and in the country than in great cities." 

 It would also appear from the tables that miners, and those 

 exposed to poisonous effluvia, are among the shortest livers. 



* See page 605. 



