BOOK VII.] History of Nature. 239 



over by the Physicians for the Disease of Vomica, being 

 stabbed in his Breast, found a Remedy in his Enemy. Q. 

 Fdbius Maximus, Consul, engaging in a Battle with the Nations 

 of the Allobroges and Averni, near the River Isara, on the 

 sixth Day before the Ides of August ; in which double 

 action he Slew of his Enemies 13,000 ; he was in the Contest 

 delivered from his Fever. This gift of Nature, truly, what- 

 ever is bestowed on us, is frail and uncertain : and in those 

 in whom it exists in the largest Measure, it is but short and 

 evil if we consider the whole Course of it from Beginning to 

 End. Because if we count our repose by Night, a Man 

 may be truly said to live but one half of his Life ; for that 

 Half of it which is spent in Sleep may be compared to Death ; 

 and if he cannot Sleep, it is a Punishment. Nor are the 

 Years of our Infancy to be reckoned, for this Age is void of 

 Sense; nor those of old Age, which is the punishment of a 

 disposition to live. What shall I speak of so many kinds of 

 Dangers, so many Diseases, so many Fears, so many Cares, 

 so many Prayers for Death, that we Pray for nothing more 

 frequently ? and therefore Nature knoweth not what better 

 thing to give a Man, than short Life. The Senses 1 become 

 dull, the Members grow benumbed, the Eye-sight decayeth 

 betimes, the Hearing followeth, then the Supporters, the 

 Teeth also, and the very Instruments that serve for our 

 Food ; and yet all this Time is counted a Part of our Life. 

 And therefore it is taken for a wonderful example, and that 

 to which we cannot find a fellow, that Xenophilus the Musi- 

 cian lived 105 Years, without any inconveniency in all his 

 Body. But all other Men, by Hercules! are vexed at certain 

 Hours, as no other Creatures are besides, with pestiferous 

 Heat and Cold in every part of their Members ; which go 



1 How remarkably does this enumeration of the signs and evils of 

 age correspond with the more poetical representation of the same condi- 

 tion by Solomon, in the last chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes ! 

 Cicero, in his " Cato," laments the ills of age as more weighty than JEtna ; 

 and others of the wisest heathens join in the lamentation ; which ceases 

 to surprise us when we reflect that they were destitute of a hope in the 

 future. Wern. Club. 



