The art of living long : a new and improved English version of the treatise / by the celebrated Venetian centenarian Louis Cornaro, with essays by Joseph Addison, Lord Bacon, and Sir William Temple.

  • Luigi Cornaro
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The art of living long : a new and improved English version of the treatise / by the celebrated Venetian centenarian Louis Cornaro, with essays by Joseph Addison, Lord Bacon, and Sir William Temple. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    he is under the sway of his furious passions, he is devoid of both intellect and reason. I resolved, through the exercise of reason, to rid myself of my passionate temper; and I succeeded so well that now—though, as I have said, I am naturally inclined to anger—I never allow myself to give way to it, or, at most, only in a slight degree. Any man, who, by nature, is of a bad constitution, may similarly, through the use of reason and the help of the temperate life, enjoy perfect health to a very great age; just as I have done, although my constitution was naturally so wretched that it seemed impossible I should live beyond the age of forty. Whereas, I am now in my eighty-sixth year, full of health and strength; and, were it not for the long and severe illnesses with which I was visited so frequently during my youth and which were so serious that the physicians at times despaired of saving me, I should have hoped to reach the above-mentioned term of a hundred years. But, through those illnesses, I lost a large part of my radical moisture ; and, as this loss can never be repaired, reason teaches that it will be im- possible for me to reach the extreme term. Therefore, as I shall show later on, I never give the matter a thought. It is quite enough for me that I have lived forty-six years longer than I could reasonably have expected; and that, at such an advanced age as mine, all my senses and organs remain in perfect condition—even my teeth, my voice, my memory, and my heart. And as for my brain, it, especially, is more active now than it ever was. Nor do these powers suffer any decline with the increase of years —a blessing to be attributed solely to the fact of my increasing the temperateness of my life. For, as my years multiply, I lessen the quantity of my food; since, indeed, this decrease is absolutely neces- [79]
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