156 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
from 28 to 42) is not so very strictly limited as the period between birth 
and maturity. At the age of fqrty-two, the summit of the arch of life is 
gained—and thence it gradually descends. But this keystone of the arch 
is not so fixed as the keystone of growth at the age of 24 years. By in¬ 
temperance, by misfortune, by hereditary or accidental diseases, the in¬ 
dividual passes his meridian at thirty-five, or even sooner, instead of reach¬ 
ing the meridian of forty-two. Nature too, who is always indulgent to 
those who obey her dictates, will sometimes, though rarely, protract this 
. middle period to fifty years; but it is in the succeeding period of declen¬ 
sion from the meridian that the greatest latitude or variety is observable. 
After the completion of the seventh septenniad,—forty-nine years—indul¬ 
gent nature gives a comparatively unlimited scope to the powers of life— 
at least till the end of the twelfth septenniad—eighty-four—when itseems 
that, except on very extraordinary occasions, 3he determines that those 
who have arrived at that advanced age shall have only a probability (to'use 
the language of the insurance office,) of three years and a half of— decre¬ 
pitude! 
Difference between males and females. —At the beginning of the fourth 
septenniad, the female is as much matured in constitution as the male at 
the middle of the same-epoch—but neither the one at twenty-one, nor the 
other at twentv-four years, is at the acme of strength and firmness in or¬ 
ganization. The human frame will have acquired its ultimate healthy di 
mensions, but not its solidity and full power of bearing labor and fatigue, 
till the age of twenty-four in the. one sex, and twenty-eight or thirty in the 
other. 
The fourth septenniad the most critical for both sexes. —Tne fourth 
septenniad, then, is perhaps the most critical and dangerous fbr both sexes 
in the whole series—as far as health and happiness are consigned. The 
health of the male sex is metre periled — the happiness of the fe¬ 
male—if indeed it be possible that one of these conditions can be damaged 
without the participation of the other! 
Exercise and temperance .—I have already observed, that about the 
middle of the fourth septenniad, (24 or 25) man arrives at the limit of 
physical development; but it is rather the acme of dimensions than of 
density—of structure rather than of strength. During the latter years of 
growth, especially if it be rapid, nature appears to be, in some degree, 
exhausted by the effort of completing the fabric, and requires a temporary 
economy rather than a profuse expenditure of her powers. The human 
tabernacle, like other tenements of clay, is much better for a few years 
seasoning and settlement after the building is completed. The tall and 
full grown pine is too soft and succulent to be formed at once into the 
giddy mast, and bend elastic to the sweeping gale. 
A stock of temperance and exercise, laid in.at this period, will return 
fifty per cent more of profit in the course of life, than if attempted at any 
other epoch subsequently. Temperance not only conduces directly to the 
consolidation of the constitutional edifice just completed, but proves one 
of the best bulwarks against some of the most fatal rocks oh which health 
and happiness are often wrecked in riper years. 
Exercise, at this period, not only co-operates with temperance in the 
invigoration of the body, but powerfully controls those effervescences of 
temperament, and tides of exuberant energy, that so often burst theirpro- 
per boundaries, and hurl the youth impetuously along, 
“ In pleasure’s path, or passion’s mad career.” 
When the poet apostrophized the good fortune of those w ho crown a 
“ youth of labor ” with an “age of ease,” it is clear that by the term la¬ 
bor he meant industry—and by ease independence. But the literal ac¬ 
ceptation of these significant words is even more applicable than the me¬ 
taphorical. Exercise, in the early years of life,' is more certainly followed 
by freedom from pain, in the advanced epochs of existence, than economy 
is followed by competence—or, in the words of the poet—labor by ease. 
If the youth could see, as the physician daily sees, the exhorbitant usu ry 
which habitual indulgence in pleasure and sloth pays in the sequai—and 
that, too, not in money, which is dross, but in bodily and mental suffer¬ 
ing, (the only penalty that will be accepted,) he would shudder at the 
prospect—dash the cup from his lips—and tug at the oar of industry like 
the meanest peasant. 
Danger of indolence.—The fourth septenniad is not perhaps the most 
proper period for repressing the passions of ambition or avarice, and of en¬ 
couraging exercise of body and relaxation of mind. The love of pleasure 
has not yet experienced the slightest check from rivals that are, at a fu¬ 
ture day, to overwhelm and annihilate it; but indolence is apt to insinuate 
itself between love and ambition in this period of life, and, having once 
got the mastery, may injure and even incapacitate the individual, by gra¬ 
dually sapping the moral and physical energies before they are completely 
developed. 
Matrimony. —The fourth septenniad is claimed, in an especial manner, 
try Hymen—Cupid having been for some years previous in the field as 
pioneer. The most proper age for entering the holy bands of matrimony 
has been much discussed, but never settled. I am entitled to my opinion, 
and although I cannot here give the grounds on which it rests, the reader 
may take it for granted, that I could adduce, wfere this the proper place, a 
great number of weighty reasons, both moral and physical, for the dogma 
which I am going to propound. The maxim, then, which I would incul¬ 
cate, is this—that matrimony should not be contracted before the first year 
of the fourth septenniad on the part of the female, nor before the last year 
of the same in the case of the male. In other words, the female should 
be, at least, twenty-one years of age, and the male twenty-eight years. 
That there should be seven years difference between the ages of the sexes, 
at whatever period, of life the solemn contract is entered upon, need not 
be urged, as it is universally admitted. There is a difference of seven 
years, not in the actual duration of life of the two sexes, but in the stami¬ 
na of the constitution, the symmetry of the form, and the lineaments of 
the face. The wear and tear, of bringing up a family might alone account 
for this inequality—but there are other causes inherent in the constitution, 
and independent of matrimony or celibacy. 
In respect to early marriages, so far as it concerns the softer sex, I have 
to observe that, for every year at which the by menial knot is tied before , 
the age of tw’enty-one, there will be, on an average, three years of prema¬ 
ture decay of the corporeal fabric, and a considerable abbreviation of the 
usual range of human existence. It is in vain to point out instances that 
seem to nullify this calculation. There will be individual exceptions to 
all general rules. The above will be found a fair average estimate. 
On the moral consequence of too early marriages, it is not my intention 
to dilate; though I could adduce many strong arguments against, and ve¬ 
ry few for the. practice. It has been said that “matrimony may have 
miseries, but celibacy has no pleasures.” As far as too early marriage is 
concerned, the adage ought to run thus—marriage must have miseries, 
though celibacy may have no pleasures. 
I [Note .—We ought before to have remarked, that the extracts we make 
from the Economy of Health are not continuous, but detached paragraphs 
—and comprise but a small portion of the chapters from which we extract. 
We can heartily recommend the volume to the reader, as richly worth the 
seventy-five cents he will have to pay for it to the bookseller— Cond .] 
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