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expressive of the law of human mortality, &c. 
at a certain limited age, would not be the least proof of a 
limit of the age of man ; and further, that neither profane 
history nor modern experience could contradict the possibi- 
lity of the great age of the patriarchs of the scripture. And 
that if any argument can be adduced to prove the necessary 
termination of life, it does not appear likely that the materials 
for such can in strict logic be gathered from the relation of 
history, not even should we be enabled to prove (which is 
extremely likely to be the state of nature) that beyond a 
certain period the life of man is continually becoming worse. 
Art. 4. It is possible that death may be the consequence 
of two generally co-existing causes ; the one, chance, without 
previous disposition to death or deterioration ; the other, a de- 
terioration, or an increased inability to withstand destruction. 
If, for instance, there be a number of diseases to which the 
young and old were equally liable, and likewise which 
should be equally destructive whether the patieiit be young 
or old, it is evident that the deaths among the young and 
old by such diseases would be exactly in proportion of the 
number of young to the old ; provided those numbers were 
sufficiently great for chance to have its play ; and the inten- 
sity of mortality might then be said to be constant ; and 
were there no other diseases but such as those, life of all 
ages would be of equal value, and the number of living and 
dying from a certain number living at a given earlier age, 
would decrease in geometrical progression, as the age in- 
creased by equal intervals of time ; but if mankind be con- 
tinually gaining seeds of indisposition, or in other words, an 
increased liability to death (which appears not to be an un- 
likely supposition with respect to a great part of life, though 
