fore, rather than amongst the fons of eafe, and luxury, fhall we find the most numerous inftances of longevity; even frequently, when other external circumftances feem extremely unfavourable: as in the cafe of the poor fexton of Peterborough, who, notwithstanding his unpromifing occupation among dead bodies, lived long enough to bury two crowned heads, and to furvive two complete generations. The livelihood of Henry Jenkins, and old Parr, is faid to have confifted chiefly of the coarfeft fare, as they depended on precarious alms. To which may be added, the remarkable inftance of Agnes Milburne, who, after bringing forth a numerous offspring, and being obliged, through extreme indigence, to pafs the latter part of her life in St. Luke's work-house, yet reached her hundred and fixth year, in that fordid, unfriendly fituation †. The plain diet, and invigorating employments of a country life, are acknowledged, on all hands, to be highly conducive to health and lon. gevity, while the luxury and refinements of large cities are allowed to be equally deftructive to the human fpecies and this confideration alone, perhaps, more than counterbalances all the boafted privileges, of fuperior elegance and civilization, refulting from a city life.

From country villages, and not from crouded cities, have the preceding inftances of longevity been chiefly fupplied. Accordingly it appears from the London bills of mortality, during a period of thirty

* Fuller's Worthies, p. 293, from borough.

years, viz. from the year 1728 to 1758, the fum of the deaths amounted to 750,322, and that, in all this prodigious number, only two hundred and forty-two perfons survived the hundredth year of their age! This overgrown metropolis is computed, by my learned friend Dr. Price, to contain a ninth part of the inhabitants of England, and to confume annually feven thousand perfons, who remove into it from the country every year, without increafing it. He moreover obferves, that the number of inhabitants in England and Wales has diminished, about one fourth part, fince the revolution, and fo rapidly of late, that, in eleven years, near 200,000 of our common people have been loft ‡! If the calculation be juft, however alarming it may appear in a national view, there is this confolation, when confidered in a philofophical light, that without partial evil, there can be no general good; and that, what a nation lofes in the fcale of population at one period, it gains at another; and thus, probably, the average number of inhabitants on the furface of the globe continues, at all times, nearly the fame. By this medium the world is neither overstocked with inhabitants, nor kept too thin, but life and death keep a tolerably equal pace. The inhabitants of this ifland, comparatively speaking, are but as the duft of the balance; yet, instead of being diminished, we are affured by other writers, that within thefe thirty years, they are greatly increafed .

a memorial in the cathedral at Peter

F

The defire of felf-prefervation, and of protracting the fhort span of life, is fo intimately interwoven with our conftitution, that it is juftly efteemed one of the firft principles of our nature, and in fpite even of pain and mifery, feldom quits us to the laft moments of our existence. It feems, therefore, to be no lefs our duty than our intereft, to examine minutely into the various means that have been confidered as conducive to health and long life; and, if poffible, to distinguish such circumstances as are effential to that great end, from thofe which are merely accidental. But here, it is much to be regretted, that an accurate hiftory of the lives of all the remarkable perfons in the above table, fo far as relates to the diet, regimen, and the ufe of the nonnaturals, has not been faithfully handed down to us; without which, it is impoffible to draw the neceffary inferences. Is it not then a matter of aftonishment, that hiftorians and philofophers have hitherto paid fo little attention to longevity? If the prefent imperfect lift fhould excite others, of more leisure and better abilities, to undertake a full inveftigation of fo interefting a fubjest, the enquiry might prove not only curious, but highly ufeful to mankind. In order to furnish materials for a future hiftory of longe. vity, the bills of mortality, throughout the kingdom, ought firft to be revised, and put on a better footing; agreeably to the fcheme which you pointed out fome time ago, and of which Manchester and Chester have already given a fpecimen, highly worthy of imitation. The plan, however, might be further improved, with very little trouble, by adding a particular account of

the diet and regimen of every per fon who dies at eighty years of age or upwards, and mentioning whe ther his parents were healthy, longlived people, &c. &c. An accurate regifter thus eftablished throughout the British dominions, would be productive of many important advantages to fociety, not only in a medical and philofophical, but also in a political and moral view. It is therefore to be hoped, that the legislature will not long delay taking an object of fuch great utility into their serious confideration.

All the circumftances that are moft effentially neceffary to life, may be comprised under the fix following heads:

I. Air and climate. 2. Meat and drink. 3. Motion and rest. 4. Sleep and watching. 5. The fecretions and excretions. 6. Affections of the mind.

Thefe, though all perfectly natural to the conftitution, have by writers been ftyled non-naturals, by a strange perverfion of language; and have been all copiously handled Howunder that improper term. ever, it may not be amifs to offer a few fhort obfervations on each, as they are fo immediately connected with the present subject.

1. Air, &c.—It has long been known, that fresh air is more immediately neceflary to life than food; for a man may live two or three days without the latter, but not many minutes without the former. The vivifying principle contained in the atmosphere, fo effential to the fupport of flame, as well as animal life, concerning which

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