were peasants, accustomed to the greatest fatigues, 

 and who had no settled ruies. Indeed, if we consider 

 that the European, the Negro, the Chinese, and the 

 American, the civilized man, and the savage, the rich 

 and the poor, the inhabitant of the city, and of the 

 country, though all so different in other respects, are 

 yet entirely similar in the period allotted them for 

 living ; if we consider that neither the difference of 

 race, of climate, of nourishment, of convenience, or 

 of soil, makes any difference in the term of life: if 

 we consider that those men, who live upon raw flesh, 

 or dried fishes, upon sage or rice, upon cassava, or 

 upon roots, nevertheless live as long as those who 

 are fed upon bread and meat ; we shall readily ac- 

 knowledge, that the duration of life depends neither 

 upon habit, customs, nor the quantity of food, and 

 that nothing can change the laws of that mechanism, 

 which regulates the number of our years. 



If there be any difference in the different period of 

 man's existence, it ought principally to be ascribed to 

 the quality of the air. It has been observed, that in 

 elevated situations there have been found more old 

 people than in those that were low. The mountains 

 of Scotland, Wales, Auvergne, and Switzerland, have 

 furnished more instances of extreme old age, than the 

 plains of Holland, Flanders^ Germany, or Poland, 

 But, in general, the duration of life is nearly the same 

 in mof-t countries. Man, if not cut off by accidental 

 diseases, is generally found to live ninety or a hundred 

 years. Our ancestors did not live beyond that 

 date ; and since the time of D.ivid this term has had 

 but little alteration. 



If we be asked how, in the beginning, men lived so> 

 much longer than at present, and by what means their 

 lives were extended to nine hundred and thirty, or even 

 wine hundred and sixty years, it j may be answered, 

 that the productions of the earth, upon which they fed 

 might be of a different nature at that time, than what 

 they are at present. But perhaps it is better to say, 

 that the term was abridged by divine command^ iii 



