Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1875-06-29
TIE RUTLAND HERALD.
THURSDAY. JULY 30, 1876.
pHENomEaAu LONGEVITY. q,

ages OF tue WOilu upon saS CIV - r.,
longing life, when, in point of fact, the
real art is to know how not to shorten
it, for unquestionably the secret OF !
health and longevity lies rather in the !
avoidance of what hurts than Ia the
quest of what helps. But the difficulty
in the first place is TO ind out Pc
forehand always what is likely to hurt,
and in the next place to muster will and
skill enough to keep clear of it when
found.
Unfortunately most of us have TO
discover for ourselves all that we really
know, and the lessons of experience are
too often learned only when it is too late
to profit by them. Once in while
there is docile, plastic, reyerential ma
ture that accepts without question the
testimony of others and scrupulously
follows their guidance. But as rule,
not all the maxims of all the ages ana
sapes of the world would make man
practically and truly wise, though he had
them at his tongues end. Indeed, this
very knowledge might make him only a
pedantic and conceited fool. To know
truth theoretically is one thing; 10
know 1t experimentally is quite an
other. Most people are familiar with
the general laws of health, yet most
people disregard them till they suffer
the penalty of their violation, and some
times keep on disregarding them even
then. There Is a profession whose bust
ness it is to study the causes and cure of
disease, and yet physicians are hardly
freer from the various ills that flesh is
heir to, or from certain habits of life
which are by common consent regarded
as prejudicial to health, than men of
other vocations. PROFESSIONALLY the
number of we'll men who conscientious
ly live up to such rules of health as they
understand, and understand in their
practical application to themselves, is
exceedingly small.
One writer-a Frenchman, as q mat
| ter of course-has even gone so far as
to claim that all men who do not die
from external violence, for which they
are in no way accountable, die before
their time in consequence of their own
acts, no matter how long they may live,
or, as this cheerful philosopher puts it,
commit suicide" This writer was
doubtless trained in the same school
with that other Gallo savant who
maintained that all men were more or less
insane. Taking a purely ideal human
life under a Utopian condition OF
things, as the standard of perfect health
of body and mind, and both of these
propositions would seem theoretically
to be as entirely reasonable as they are
in point of fact, entirely Frenchy and
extravagant. However, we think most
people will admit this much: thai
when they are ailing, they can general
ly trace their ailments to some act OF
imprudence, and that they are not as
level-headed sometimes as at others
But that is not admitting either that the
world is grand morgue on the one
hand, or a vast mad-house on the
olnSI.
rency to many remarkable cases OF
longevity-cases which in some in
stances have had special prominency
and interest given them in connection
with oar national centennial epoch
But the most remarkable examples have
been those of foreigners. A few weeks
ago was chronicled the decease at Paris
of Count Waldeck, at the very great age
of one hundred and ten years, anc
more recently the death of Father Nj
cephorus, of the Convent Zitka, on Mt
Athos, at the almost unprecedented age
Tin modern times) of one hundred anC
seventeen years. Both of these mel
had been well-known in their day anC
the former for his deeds in arms, arti
and letters, and the latter tor having
been commemorated in Childe Harold a.
the generous host of Lord Byron wher
he visited the mountain monastery in hi'
southern wanderings, and there would
seem TO be no question as to the measure
of their longevity.
These cases are particularly interest
ing, not only for the great age attsined
but as exhibiting in a most striking
manner one of those remarkable anoma.
lies in human life which no man can un
derstand, but which, when examples are
used for arguments, are sometimes made,
in skillful hands, to do yeoman service
in the cause of sophistry and error.
Count Waldeck's life was an irregular,
turbulent and eventful one for the most
part, that is, for upwards of eighty
years the life of an adventurer. Be.
ginning his career as the page of Marie
AntOinette, he was successfully sol
| der of the Republic aud Empire, priso
ner of cannibals, ranger of virgin for
ests, explorer of American ruins, three
times shipwrecked, left for dead in q
duel, and smitten by fevers of all col.
ors-whhe, yellow, green and blue; "a
man of the world and society, he con-
formed to the ways of each; an indie
fatigable worker, he never spared him
self, but made nothing of laboring at an
art Ae invented in his old age twelve
hours day. On the morning of his
death he said he had ten years of work
on hand. And finally he died in conse-
sequence of imprudence. Father Nice
phorous, on the other hand, was monk
whose life had been one of peaceful,
passionless routine from first to last
He had breathed for the most part only
the pure air of Mt. Athes chad kept
regular hours, lived chiefly on herbs,
fruits and fish and a pleasant white
wine, not trodden out with the feet, but
pressed from the grape by hand" In
short, free from all cares that worry !;
had led life of almost arcadian SIM
plicity.
We cannot see that these examples
| EXAMPLES almost in certain sense of