GENERAL VIEW OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 23 



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abate in their vigor and warmth, and anxiety, suspicion, fearful- 

 ness, and the love of money, by insensible degrees, too often take 

 possession of the mind. Life often increases in value the nearer 

 the conclusion of it approaches ; and the means of enjoyment be- 

 come most prized, when the end, for which they are designed, 

 ceases to be attainable. Such are generally the weaknesses of 

 declining nature ; which, though wisdom condemns, she forbids us 

 not to pity. 



" The seven first -years of life, man's break of day, 

 Gleams of short sense, a dawn of thought display : 

 "When fourteen springs have bloom'd his downy cheek, 

 His soft and bashful meanings learn to speak : 

 From twenty-one proud manhood takes its date, 

 Yet is not strength complete till twenty-eight ; 

 Thence 'to hisfive-and-thirtieth, life's gay fire 

 Sparkles and burns bright in fierce desire : 

 At forty-two his eyes grave wisdom wear, 

 And the dark future dims him o'er with care : 

 With forty-nine behold his toils increase, --_,,-* - : 

 And busy hopes and fears disturb his peace ; 3|j|f| 

 At fifty-six, cool reason reigns entire, 

 Then life burns steady and with temp'rate fire ; 

 But sixty-three unbends the body's strength 

 Ere th' unwearied mind has run her length ; 

 And when from seventy age surveys her last, 

 Tir'd she stops short, and wishes all were past." 



Thus we see the life of man in its different stages ; it begins from 

 the cradle ; pleasing childhood succeeds, then active hot-blooded 

 youth afterwards manhood, firm, severe, deliberative, and intent 

 upon self-preservation ; lastly, debilitating old age steals on with 

 silent steps, and renders us a foetus of eternity ! 



Happy is he who, having studied the complicated history of man, 

 knows the subordination, and holds the balance of his several 

 moral and intellectual faculties ; who can gratify and yet regulate 

 his appetites; indulge, but moderate his passions; and setting 

 bounds to all, maintain inviolate the supremacy of reason. 



To conclude What a multiplicity of the operations of the sys- 

 tem ! Some fluids move slowly, others faster, others with the 

 celerity of electricity or lightning : as the blood running into 

 ten thousand rivulets, pouring into every part of the body 

 with great power; hundreds of muscles ready to obey the will 

 with instantaneous speed ; and then, above all, the powers of the 



3,125 lives to a hundred years of age. Chronolog. Tablets, Vernor and Hood, 1801. 

 It is calculated that on the globe 500,000 human beings die every day ! 



