442 LONGEVITY or THE ANTEDILUVIANS, 
But one of the best and most valuable ends which longevity would 
answer was, the transmitting of knowledge to mankind. And thus, 
before writing was invented, or any such easy and durable mode of 
conveyance was found out, a very few men served for many genera- 
tions to instruct their posterity, who thus would not be at a loss to 
consult living and authentic records. 
The natural causes of this longevity are variously assigned. Some 
have imputed it to the sobriety of the Antediluvians, and the simpli- 
city of their diet; alleging, that they had none of those provocatives 
to gluttony, which art and vice have since invented. Temperance 
might undoubtedly have some effect, but not psssibly to such a de- 
gree. There have been many temperate and abstemious persons in 
later ages, who yet seldom have exceeded the usual period. Others 
have thought, that the long lives of the inhabitants of the old world 
proceeded from the strength of their stamina, or first principles of their 
bodily constitution : which might indeed be a concurrent, but not the 
sole and adequate cause of their longevity; for Shem, who was born 
before the deluge, and had all the virtues of the antediluvian consti- 
tution, fell three hundred years short of the age of his forefathers, 
because the greatest part of his life was passed after the flood. Others 
have imputed the longevity of the Antediluvians to the excellency of 
their fruits, and some peculiar virtue in the herbs and plants of those 
days. But to this supposition it has been objected, that, as the 
earth was cursed immediately after the fall, its productions, we may 
suppose, gradually decreased in their virtue and goodness, till the 
flood ; and yet we do not see the length of men’s lives decreased con- 
siderably, if at all, during that interval. Waving this objection, as the 
import of the curse is variously interpreted, it appears certain that 
the productions of the earth were at first, and probably continued till 
after the deltige, of a different nature from what they were in future 
times. 
Buffon supposes their difference may have continued gradually to 
diminish for many ages subsequent to that catastrophe. The surface 
of the globe, according to his theory, was, in the first ages of the 
world, less solid and compact, because gravity having acted only for a 
short time, terrestrial bodies had not acquired their present density 
and consistence. The produce of the earth, therefore, must have 
been analogous to its condition. The surface being more loose and 
moist, its productions must, of course, be more ductile and capable of 
extension. Their growth, therefore, and that of the human body, 
must require a longer time to be completed. The softness and ducti- 
lity of the bones, muscles, &c. would probably remain for a longer 
period, because every species of food was more soft and succulent. 
Hence, the full expansion of the human body, or when it was capable 
of generating, must have required one hundred and twenty, or one 
hundred and thirty years ; and the duration of life would be in pro- 
portion to the time of growth, as is uniformly the case at present; 
for if we suppose the age of puberty, among the first races of men, to 
have been one hundred and thirty years, as they now arrive at that 
age in fourteen years, the age of the Antedilivians will be in exact 
proportion to ^that of the present race ; since by multiplying these 
