AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY. 



Phenomena,' Mr. Leo H. Grindon has discussed what 

 he terms the various leases of Hfe in plants and 

 animals, using the data and inferences of Bacon, 

 Hufeland, and Flourens to a very large extent, but 

 adding some which are of value. The relation of 

 length of life to bulk, intensity, and fertility, which 

 have been more or less clearly apparent to all who 

 have thought on the matter from early times, are 

 briefly set forth, and apparent exceptions to the laws 

 enunciated are attributed to special design on the 

 part of the Creator, to serve the special require- 

 ments of the exceptional organism, or of some other 

 organism dependent on it. 



Lastly, in regard to works, the volumes of Mr. 

 Herbert Spencer must be mentioned. For v^hether 

 we accept the new philosophy of Evolution, so mar- 

 vellously born of Mr. Darwin's theory of the Origin 

 of Species, or cling to an older belief, the fitness 

 of things to their conditions, the correspondences of 

 organisms to their environment, so ably set forth in 

 Mr. Spencer's grand work, must enter into our theory 

 of Nature. It may be a fair boast of the evolutionist 

 that the founder of his philosophy has been led by 

 the course of his speculations to trace a closer con- 

 nection, a more complete adaptation of living things 

 to their wants than the teleologist ever even hinted 

 at, much as such a close connection would have 

 added to the consistency of his theory of design. 

 In his 'Principles of Biology,' Mr. Spencer, in the 



