Longevity : the means of prolonging life after middle age / by John Gardner.

  • John Gardner
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Longevity : the means of prolonging life after middle age / by John Gardner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    34/224 page 22
    Surely, to all such, every available means for the preservation of life, and for attaining the full period of existence, should be of great interest, carefully sought and diligently employed. Three thousand years ago, a wise man wrote : “There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men. A man to whom God has given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth; yet God giveth him not the power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity and an evil disease.” This is equally true at the present moment. Witness the tens of thousands scattered over the whole country, and, indeed, we may say, the whole world, wasting their lives in indolence, self-indul- gence, perhaps vice ; expending the wealth gained by the labour, anxiety, and often, it must be feared, by means of questionable propriety, of those who had a very brief tenure of it. Surely, if it be de- sirable to obtain riches, it is not less desirable to have the enjoyment of them as long as the laws of our being permit. Age has real and substan- tial enjoyments when not marred by suffering.
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