66 HISTORY OF 



as those who are fed upon bread and meat, we 

 shall readily be brought to acknowledge, that the 

 duration of life depends neither upon habit, cus- 

 toms, nor the quantity of food ; we shall confess, 

 that nothing can change the laws of that mechan- 

 ism which regulates the number of our years, and 

 which can chiefly be affected only by long fast- 

 ing, or great excess. 



If there be any difference in the different pe- 

 riods 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 furnish- 

 ed more instances of extreme old age, than the 

 plains of Holland, Flanders, Germany, or Po- 

 land. But, in general, the duration of life is 

 nearly the same in most countries. Man, if not 

 cut off by accidental diseases, is often found to 

 live to ninety or a hundred years. Our ances- 

 tors did not live beyond that date ; and, since 

 the times of David, this term has undergone 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 nine hundred and sixty years ? 

 it may be answered, that the productions of the 

 earth upon which they fed, might be of a diffe- 

 rent nature at that time from what they are at 

 present. " It may be answered, that the term 

 was abridged by Divine command, in order to 



