Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1862-09-17
THE LENGTH OF HUMAN LIFE.


| What ought to be the length of human life
The Psalmist says that the days OF our years
are Ethree score and ten but many Of the
patrarchs doubled, nay quadrupled, the given
| period; nay, at that time the sum of human
| life, on an average, was 10 nger, as now il is
much shorter; and would further answer.
that to make an average fall below, is equally
false with making it fall above the truth. If
we fix the limit of life Mt seventy. old age
must begin very much earlier than the time at
which we have fixed it.
But is there a necessity that human life
should end at seventy7 History and expert
| encc say no. There be many CAV seniors as
lively at seventy as Others are at fifty; many
be stronger and better men. Is there any
comparison TO be drawn between the lives of
the inferior animals and of men, by which we
may judge of the average length of our own
Button has told us that all the larger animals
live about six or seven times the space in
which they continue to grow. Others, and
those more scientific follow after him. have
reduced this to five times the length. But
the true data are here found compared and ar
ranged by other writer's who have followed
Button and Cuvier. The length of life is
multiple OF the length of growth. thus-Man
grows twenty years, lives 90 or 100 wears:
the camel grows years and lives 40; the
horse grows years, lives % ; the lion grows
years, lives ID to 20 the OK grows years.
lives 10 TO twenty the dog grows years,
lives lo to II; the CIT grows l J years, lives
8; and the guinca-pg grows months and
lives or years. The mutipk here is s.
Tins, by physical analogy, we shall find
that man grows for twenty years. and his nat.
ural term of life should never be less than one
hundred Great prudence in living, immense
strength OF constitution, and other circum-
stances, should secure for men even longer
period of existence. But then We go to bed
late and rise late; We strain our faculties,
misspend our youth, distress onr minds. crib,
cabin and confine the body in the very mar
rowest limits, and then expect the body 10 en-
dure all this, and when il suddenly grows old.
or succumbs, we put down the fault at the
wide door of Nature. Was there ever so lilo
gical an animal man There are those
who doubt whether dogs cannot reason. When
than we do.
The growth of man, or rather the termina-
tion of growth, isvery easily determined. The
true sign of the term of animal growth is to
be found in the reunion OF the bones to their
ephiphyses. So long as this union does not
take place, the animal continues to grow Any
person of an enquiriug spirit, when picking
Il Il
substance like gristle, of very elastic nature,
viii be found at the end of each bone, and in
the very young is SO far from being united,
that it comes away with the greatest possible
ease. This is not thoroughly united to the /
bones of any animal, until it has ceased to
grow. In man, this is when he has reached
twenty years OF age, and the law, therefore,
man attaining the rights and responsibilities
of manhood at twenty-one years of age.
Poets have told US that man may have
lived very long life in very short space.
The value of time is relative. With our in- /
creased means of speed. our manner of acquir-
ing knowledge, aud our method of thought, /
there is no doubt but that a man of thirty,
" NO HaS a. SChooi, cotieSe, anu ousiHeSs, Wei
filled up his moments, has lived longer than
the village patriarch who passed his bucolic
existence quietly at home. sit may be-
cries one hero Of our modern writers, shy the
calendar of years, you the older man but
It's the sun of knowledge on the man S dial,
shining bright and chronicling thoughts and
leeds, that make true time" ssAye," says
,notI,ar xsua shonld connt time by heart
beats; he lives longest who knows the most,
links the wisest, and acts the BEST"
Measured in this way, our poets and litera-
eurs have lived long but in duration OF time,