AN ESSAY ON LONGEVITY. 63 



is great, his time of growth until the thirtieth year, 

 his teeth exceeding hard, neither hath it been ob- 

 served that his blood is the coldest of all creatures ; 

 his age hath sometimes reached to two hundred years. 



3. Lions are accounted long livers, because many 

 of them have been found toothless, a sign not so 

 certain, for that may be caused by their strong 

 breath. 



4. The bear is a great sleeper, a dull beast, and 

 given to ease, and yet not noted for long life ; nay, 

 he hath this sign of short life, that his bearing in the 

 womb is but short, scarce full forty days. 



5. The fox seems to be well disposed in many 

 things for long life ; he is well skinned, feeds on flesh, 

 lives in dens, and yet he is noted not to have that 

 property. Certainly he is a kind of dog, and that 

 kind is but shortlived. 



6. The camel is a long liver, a lean creature, and 

 sinewy ; so that he doth ordinarily attain to fifty, and 

 sometim'es to a hundred years. 



7. The horse lives but to a moderate age, scarce to 

 forty years, his ordinary period is twenty years, but 

 perhaps he is beholden for this shortness of life to 

 man ; for we have now no horses of the sun that live 

 freely, and at pleasure, in good pastures ; notwith- 

 standing the horse grows till he be six years old, and 

 is able for generation in his old age. Besides the 

 mare goeth longer with her young one than a woman, 

 and brings forth two at a burthen more rarely. The 



