Morning journal and courier., 1885-04-09
The Man Who Lived to be Hundred Because He Wanted to.
 +ba Satu

Cornaro's regimen-which consisted of
 eggs, soup, bread, pancakes, and such-like
 food, with wine-was, as he tells us, intend
 ed for himself alone. All people should live
 temperately, but the temperance of one man
 is the excess of another. Cornaro's method
 is the simple one that each man should find
 out for himself what is the suitable quantity
 of food and drink for himself, and then live
 accordingly The charm of Cornaro's mar
 rative consists in the gar1ulous naivete with
 which he sets forth his simple creed and
 practice. Italy, he says, was suffering from
 three great evils-frst, from hattery and
 ceremonies; secondly, from the effect of
 the Lutheran doctrines; thirdly, from de-
 bauchery. These three evils or rather ''cruel
 monsters of human life," have destroyed re-
 spectively social sincerity; secondly, the re-
 ligion of the soul; thirdly, the health of the
 body The first two plaques he leaves so be
 dealt with by some "gentili spirit" who
 will banish them from the world; the third
 he undertakes to extirpate himself, being con-
 vinced that Italy before his death will return to her formw fair and holy manners" To this end he gives his own practice as an ex- ample to be followed, at least in it's aim and spirit His daily allowance of food was three rolls, the whole weighing twelve ounces; his daily allowance OF wine fourteen ounces On one occasion. after he had slightly decreased the quantities, he became in few days 'choleric and melancholy" and soon fell into
 violent fever, from which he only recovered by returning to his former regimen. He never ate or drank to the extent of his appe- tite: avoided extremes of heat and cold; was careful to have sufficient sleep. To keep clear of grief, melancholy, hatred, and other perturbatons of the mind was also an aessen- tial part of his system, though temperance in eating and drinking will do much to counter act mental troubles as well as to neutraliZe the effects of bodily hardships. Once when powerful enemies brought a suit against him he kept his equanimity, and won his case in the end, while his brother, who had read an irregular life, died of anxiety while the case was still going on. If men were but temper ate as he was himself they would live to be 8 hundred years old He himself intended to do so and to die at last, not of disease, but of ''pura resoluzione." If he had had good constitution to start with he would reach 12O years instead of only 10O He did, in fact, die very nearly at the age of 100, if he did not surpass it. He is sure that, having on earth led life pleasing to God, he will by Until he adopted the temperate life he never knew that the world was fair" The tenn perate s'fanno brutto il mondo." Even
 the deaths of relations and friends troubled him little, so calm and equable had his tenn per become These and other doctrines to the same effect he published in his first trea- tise, written when he was at the age of S3: three years later he followed it up by sec- ond, the ''Compendia della Vita Sobsia;" five years later still he published Q third; and, finally, at the age of 95, he brought out his Glowing Elaboration" urging his readers to do as he had done, and to enjoy the happi- ness he had found Not little of it, he tells us was due to the fact that many of them had followed his advice.