The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-07-12
DO We Live as Long a. We sIIRnt-

From hs Philadelphia Ledger.
With the vast majority of the people
the desire to live is deep and tenacious,
and to preserve ones life has been held
to be the first law of nature. Yet it is
curious to observe that while most per-
sons will be thrown into panic at the
thought of immediate danger, and will
cast about with utmost energy for relief
and safety, yet how few there are who
are willing to take much trouble to
prOlong their lives or secure the highes 1
efficiency in all their faculties and at
tributes. Some years ago n French
savan advanced the idea that the
natural duration OF mans life was one
hundred years, This theory has been
much controverted by others, while
some have gone SO far as TO question
whether any person in modern times
has lived SO long as Il hundred years. 1t
Is now said that Professor Faraday, a
man distinguished for his scientific at
tainments, has adopted the theory OF
FlOurin. 1t is claimed that every ami
NAL, in ordinary circumstances, Will
live five times as many years as rs re-
quired for its complete development.
The human body usually reaches its
perfection at twenty years, AFTER which
II grows no more; hve times twenty
gives The good round number of one
hundred years.
Whether the theories OF these phiIoso-
pher3 be true or not we do not say, but
that the subject OF increasing the durR-
ton of human life is so important that
all must admit the wisdom of giving IL
most careful consideration. There can
not De reasonable doubt we think,
but that attention to diet, air, exercise,
sleep, clothing and employment will
result ordinarily in the prolongation OF
our days. In the Edinburgh Encyclo-
pBdia can be found list of one hun
dred and twenty-five persons, with
their residences, &c, whose ages ranged
from one hundred up to one hundred
and eighty years. In. this country re-
peated instances have been recorded of
persons who have attained great age.
The writer knew woman in Chester
county, Ofthis State, who at the ad-
vanced age of one hundred and eight
years retained all her faculties, and
moved about in all her domestic duties
with uncommon brisEness. Some seem
to think tina! the theory spoken of is
contradictory of the Scriptures, where
it Is said, "Ihe days of our years are
threescoTe years and ten; and If by rea-
son Of strength they be fourscore years,
yet is their strength labor and sorrow"
But reference to this passage shows
that it Is not IL record ofHhy divine de-
cree in relation to human life, but
merely a reflection on the brevity, un-
certainty and sorrows of life. The au-
thor suggests that seventy or eighty
years WAS about the average length OF
mans life in his day, but whether
long or short it was full OF "labor and
SORROW"
The author OF Ecclesiastes says
"the number of mans days at the most
are a hundred years." We may gather
then, that in the days of the author of
the Nineteenth Psalm, many lived to
the nge of seventy-five, and some at
tanned to eighty, but when the author
of EcclesiRstes wrote, many lived to
be a hundred years old.
But little while ago, and it was esti-
mated that the entire generation passed
away in about thirty three years; but
now it is thought that the average OF
lifetime of the race is thirty-tive years.
Let US rejoice in the endeavors of phi
lanthropists and philosophers, who not
only labor 10 mitigate the lHbors, sor-
rows and miseries of life, but to prolong
it also. We need not affirm that we
have a reasonable expectation of living
a hundred years, yet, care of our
physical organization, and clear con-
science from sincere effort to do what
is right, will go a great way towards
giving US what the Bible calls ga good
old age.n