ANIMALS. 381 



seives the beauty of the face ; and the person that has not felt 

 their influence, is less strongly marked by the decays of nature." 



Hence, therefore, as we advance in age, the bones, the carti- 

 lages, the membranes, the flesh, the skin, and every fibre of the 

 body, become more solid, more brittle, and more dry. Every 

 part shrinks, every motion becomes more slow ; the circulation 

 of the fluids is performed with less freedom ; perspiration di- 

 minishes ; the secretions alter ; the digestion becomes slow and 

 laborious ; and the juices no longer serving to convey their ac- 

 customed nourishment, those parts may be said to live no longer 

 when the circulation ceases. Thus the body dies by little and 

 little ; all its functions are diminished by degrees ; life is driven 

 from one part of the frame to another ; universal rigidity pre- 

 vails ; and death at last seizes upon the little that is left. 



As the bones, the cartilages, the muscles, and all other parts 

 of the body, are softer in women than in men, these parts must, 

 of consequence, require a longer time to come to that hardness 

 which hastens death. Women, therefore, ought to be a longer 

 time in growing old than men ; and this is actually the case. If 

 we consult the tables which have been drawn up respecting hu- 

 man life, we shall find that after a certain age, they are more 

 long-lived than men, all other circumstances the same. A wo- 

 man of sixty has a better chance than a man of the same age to 

 live till eighty. Upon the whole, we may infer, that such per- 

 sons as have been slow in coming up to maturity, will also be 

 slow in growing old ; and this holds as well with regard to 

 other animals as man. 



The whole duration of the life of either vegetables or animals, 

 may be, in some measure, determined from their manner of com- 

 ing to maturity. The tree or the animal, which takes but a short 

 tin)e to increase to its utmost pitch, perishes much sooner than 

 such as are less premature. In both the increase upwards is 

 first accomplished ; and not till they have acquired their greatest 

 degree of height do they begin to spread in bulk. Man grows 

 in stature till about the age of seventeen ; but his body is not 

 completely developed till about thirty. Dogs on the other 

 hand, are at their utmost size in a year, and become as bulky as 

 they usually are in another. However, man, who is so long in 

 growing, continues to live fourscore or a hundred years ; but 

 the dog seldom above twelve or thirteen. In general also it 



