The Press.
London, England, 1855-01-27 00:00:00

tion) that this may be my appointed end, it is not at all
the more likely because of my lean and hungry appearance.
I am in far more danger of nervous diseases, from which
nothing but perpetual self•management, and the fortunate
circumstance of my life and disposition, preserve me.
Nature gave me an indefatigable activity of mind, and a
buoyancy of spirit which has ever enabled me to think
little of difficulties, and to live in the light of hope ; these
gifts, too, were accompanied with an hilarity which has
enabled me to retain a boy's heart to the age of eight•and-
thirty : but my senses are perilously acute—impressions
sink into me too deeply: and at one time ideas had all the
vividness and apparent reality of actual impressions to such
a degree, that I believe a speedy removal to a foreign
country, bringing with it a total change of all external
objects, saved me from imminent danger. The remedy, or,
at least, the prevention, of this is variety of employment;
and that it is that has made me the various writer that I
am, even more than the necessity of pursuing the gainful
paths of literature. If I fix my attention, morning and
evening, upon one subject, and if my latest evening studies
are of a kind to interest me deeply, my rest is disturbed and
broken ; and those bodily derangements ensue that indicate
great nervous susceptibility. Experience having taught
me this, I fly from one thing to another, each new train of
thought neutralising, as it were, the last ; and thus in general
maintain the balance so steadily, that I lie down at night
with a mind as tranquil as an infant's.
That I am a very happy man I owe to my early mar-
riage. When little more than one-and-twenty I married
under circumstances as singular as they well could be—
and, to all appearance, as improvident; but from that hour
to this I have had reason to bless the day. The main
source of disquietude was thus at once cut off; I had done
with hope and fear upon the most agitating and most im-
portant action of life, and my heart was at rest. Several
years elapsed before I became a father; and then the
keenest sorrow which I ever endured was for the loss of
an only child, twelve months old. Since that event I have
had five children, most of whom have been taken from me.
Of all sorrows these are the most poignant; but I am the
better for them, and never pour out my soul in prayer
without acknowledging that these dispensations have drawn
me nearer to God.

De la Longevite Humaine et de la Quantitif de
Vie sur le Globe. By P. Flourens. Paris :
Gamier Freres.
No book brought out in Paris for many years
past has created such a sensation as this one—
everybody is reading it, everybody talking
about it ; and, most assuredly, it will be re-
ceived with equal eagerness wherever French
literature is read or translated. Rarely, in-
deed, has a work been produced which
addresses itself bo directly and so persuasively
to all men, without distinction of rank or
creed, of nation or clime ; for it reveals a great
scientific truth in which each human being
has a positive personal interest—a truth, which
if acted on, as it ought to be, and as one may
expect it will be, will entirely change the
destinies of all humanity. Not to keep the
reader in suspense, we will tell him at once
that this truth is that—each man is destined to
live for a hundred years. "A hundred years !
Pshaw quackery ! " is, we hear, his con-
temptuous answer. But wait a bit, good sir,
if you please. There is not a word in the book
about marvellous elixirs, or the discovery of
the lapis philosophorum, or Paracelsus, or the
Rosicrucians ; and the writer is no less a
personage than that M. Flourens who is
known to all Europe as one of the most dis-
tinguished savans of the day, and as the author
of many most learned works on physiological
science ; who is, besides, Professor of Com-
parative Physiology in the Museum of National
History of Paris, Perpetual Secretary of the
Academy of Sciences in the same city—the
most renowned scientific institution in Europe
—who is a member of our own Royal Society,
and who belongs to the academies of Edin-
burgh, Stockholm, Munich, Madrid, Turin,
and of almost every other capital in Christen-
dom. It is, of course, absolutely impossible
that such a man could be guilty of anything
approaching quackery or deception on the
public ; and when, therefore, such a man
puts his name to any assertion, however start-
ling it may appear, however contradictory t 3
old, preconceived, and universal notions it
may be—the public, we hold, are bound to re-
ceive it with serious attention, and even to
accept it as a scientific truth, until it shall be
proved to be erroneous by person* of equal
scientific authority.

-- - - This said, we will proceed to make such
translations from M. Flourens' book as will
enable the reader to see what his extraordinary
revelations, which have set all Pai is wonder
ing, are :

Are there any,_. insane of prolonging the dnrati3n of
human life ? To prolong it, that is to say to make it
lift as Wag as tha sonstitution of man will hear.-741,