596 THE MOUNTAIN. 



men is to be consummated, and the result, the extreme of 

 macrobiotic life, or ultimate longevity of the patriarchs, 

 achieved. Here the poet takes time by the forelock, and 

 philosophy and physiology by the nose. Antaeus, the 

 mighty giant and wrestler, was invincible as long as he re- 

 mained an integral and perfectly sound part of the world, 

 and by organic and celestial harmony filled an indispensable 

 need in the instrumentality of a divine organization, as long 

 as some shape of ultimate filial life-bond united him with his 

 mother, the earth ; but a feeble infant in the arms of any 

 brutal Hercules, (demon of vice,) who could detach and easily 

 crush him in the air, when his foot had left the maternal 

 contact. 



Starting with ancient records, where things are somewhat 

 dim in the fields of the prophetic telescopes, and coming down 

 to the present time, where the knife and microscope appear, 

 and records of common courts testify, who lived the longest, 

 who fulfilled the sum-total of all prophecies, of all philoso- 

 phies, of all religions, all sciences, natural, supernatural, and 

 made the body of man a sound implement, and plastic clay 

 in the fingers of the pure, intelligent soul, and told the secret 

 of the universe on this point of longevity ? First, the patri- 

 archs were clearly the longest livers, because they "were 

 nomads, passing most of their time in the open air, were 

 temperate, and conformed to the dictates of nature." Me- 

 thuselah, of course, heads this list, attaining to upwards of 

 200 years, the orthodox interpretation of the " acute divine" 

 Hensler, or to near a thousand, old style, verbal rendering. 

 In either case he is a precious fact, and stands as the great 

 hope of humanity. Then follow the rest of the patriarchs, 

 in order of longevity, Jared, 962 ; Noah, 950 ; Adam, 930 ; 

 Seth, 912 ; Cainan, 910 ; Enos, 905 ; Lamech, 777, etc. etc. 



Yery nearly approaching the ages of these men of centu- 

 ries, interpreted as already stated, profane history has many 

 records of longevity with interesting examples. 



The following table has striking points, not only in long 

 life, but as representing a variety of types of the different 



