Sure Methods of Attaining a Long and Healthful Life. Transl (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: FROM SIGNIOR LEWIS CORNARO, TO THE RIGHT REV. BARBARO, Patri'irch Elect of Aquielia. CHAPTER IV. THE METHOD OF ENJOYING A 'COMPLETE HAPPINESS IN OLD AGE. . My Lord, rFMIE human understanding must certainly have something divine in its constitution and frame. How divine the invention of conversing; with an absent friend, by the help of writing! How divinely is it contrived by nature, that men, though at a great distance, should see one another with the intellectual eye, as I now see your Lordship! By means ofthis contrivance, I shall endeavour to entertain you with matters of the greatest moment. It is true,'that I shall speak of nothing but what I have already mentioned. But it was not at the age of ninety-one, to which I have now attained; a thing I cannot help taking notice of, because as I advance in years, the sounder and heartier I grow, to the amazement of the world. I, who can account for it, am bound to show, that a man may enjoy a terrestrial paradise after eighty, which I enjoy: but it is not to be obtained, except by temperance and sobriety, virtues so acceptable to the Almighty, enemies to sensuality, and friends to reason. Now, my lord, to begin, I must tell you, that within these few days past I have been visited by many of the learned doctors of this university, as well physicians as philosophers, who were well acquainted with my age, my life, and manners; knowing how stout, hearty, and gay I was; and in what perfection all my senses still continued; likewise my memory, spirits and understanding; and even my voiceand teeth. They knew, besides, that I constantly employed eight hours every day in writing treatises, with my own hand, on subjects useful to mankind, and spent many more in walking and singing. O, my lord, how melodious my voice is...