Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-11-25
Row LONG OUGHT A MAN TO LIVE.

| 1HUhLON w b6Dp VIM NISN hAN NN-N-
day, was So years old. That, in Amer
lea, Is regarded as very old age. 1t
gave Mr.. WEED distinction, as much as
anything else, in his city.
Comparatively speaking, Mr.. WEED
was an old man, but in fact he came
nearer living out the measure of his
days than the majority Of men.
There is no valid reason why, under
favorable conditions, a man should not
live hundred years. All animal life
is found to be constituted with stock
of vitality sufficient to run it five times
the period the particular animal re-
quires to mature.
For examples, the horse natures in
about five years, AID will be dead in
about twenty-five; the dog natures in
about two years, and will be dead in
about ten-and 50 on through the list;
but man who natures in about twenty
years, and ought, therefore, to live a
hundred, is dead, on an average, at
thirty live.
The failure of the rule In the case Of
the man does not prove that the rule is
not applicable in his case, but simply
that he fails to comply with the eondi-
tons of life. The lower animals come
nearer complying with the conditions
than man. Man wastes his stock of vi
tally and is bankrupt before his term is
half spent. There is nothing dearer to
a man, it is said, than his life, and yet
there is nothin with which he is so
improvident and reckless.
1t will be found from observation that
there are two prime conditions of lon
gevity in man, the one is intelligence
and the other activity. Intelligence
may not in itself contribute to physical
health, but at the same time it is almost
too much to expect that the delicate
and complicated human organism can
be kept running in good order without
the interested supervision of keen and
aud discerning intelligence. 1t would
be just as reasonable to expect the COM
plicated machinery of the locomotive
to be preserved in good running order
without the supervision Of skilled en-
gineer.
True, we find numerous instances of
men growing old in ignorance, who do
know the elementary principles of
physiology; but in every such case it is
found that their course of life has, by
force of circumstances, been directed
into healthful channel, with simple,
temperate and regular habits. Yet the
men whom the world knows as "Old
men" to-day, are the men of the finest
intelligence; men who have been and
are everywhere recognized Of men of
commanding intellects-the LoNGFEL-
LOWS, the BRYANTS, the Stewards, the
ENIERsONs, the GLADsToNEs, the DICK
EMS, the THEIRS, the BEACoNsFIELDs.
So, also, have these men been distin-
6ulohCu ioA bhClA winning SapASANy
their assiduous and unbroken activity
down to the last hour of life. Not that
that they are ever-worked, or worked
on the high-pressure plan, but that reg.
ular, earnest work was the habit OF
their lives; that they maintained their
activity to the last, as we'll as their in
fiuence among men, by refusing to re,
tire from the world of thought an action
even at the most advanced age.
Let young boy start out with the
same degree of intelligence regarding
the laws of health, the same estimate Of
the value of health, and the same degree
Of self possession and self denial that
experience brings, and, We say, there is
no valid reason why he should not live
a hundred years-there are the best o.
reasons why he should.