Among hermits and ecclesiastics, as would be the natural inference from their regular lives, many instances of longevity are recorded. John was supposed to be ninety-three; Paul the hermit was one hundred and thirteen; Saint Anthony lived to one hundred and five; James the hermit to one hundred and four; Saint Epithanius lived to one hundred and fifteen; Simeon Stylites to one hundred and twelve; Saint Mungo was accredited with one hundred and eighty-five years (Spottiswood), and Saint David attained one hundred and forty-six. Saint Polycarpe suffered martyrdom at over one hundred, and Simon Cleophas was Bishop of Jerusalem at one hundred and twenty.
Brahmin priests of India are known to attain incredible age, and one of the secrets of the adepts of the Buddhist faith is doubtless the knowledge of the best means of attaining very old age. Unless cut off by violence or accident the priests invariably become venerable patriarchs.
Influence of Mental Culture.--Men of thought have at all times been distinguished for their age. Among the venerable sages are Appolonius of Tyana, a follower of Pythagoras, who lived to over one hundred; Xenophilus, also a Pythagorean, was one hundred and six; Demonax, a Stoic, lived past one hundred; Isocrates was ninety-eight, and Solon, Sophocles, Pindar, Anacreon, and Xenophon were octogenarians.
In more modern times we find men of science and literature who have attained advanced age. Kant, Buffon, Goethe, Fontenelle, and Newton were all over eighty. Michael Angelo and Titian lived to eighty-nine and ninety-nine respectively. Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation; Hans Sloane, the celebrated president of the Royal Society in London; Plater, the Swiss physician; Duverney, the anatomist, as well as his confrere, Tenon, lived to be octogenarians. Many men have displayed activity when past four score. Brougham at eighty-two and Lyndhurst at eighty-eight could pour forth words of eloquence and sagacity for hours at a time.
Landor wrote his "Imaginary Conversations" when eighty-five, and Somerville his "Molecular Science" at eighty-eight; Isaac Walton was active with his pen at ninety; Hahnemann married at eighty and was working at ninety-one.
J. B. Bailey has published a biography of "Modern Methusalehs,"which includes histories of the lives of Cornaro, Titian, Pletho, Herschell, Montefiore, Routh, and others. Chevreul, the centenarian chemist, has only lately died. Gladstone, Bismarck, and von Moltke exemplify vigor in age In the Senate of the United States, Senators Edmunds, Sherman, Hoar, Morrill, and other elderly statesmen display as much vigor as their youthful colleagues. Instances of vigor in age could be cited in every profession and these few examples are only mentioned as typical.
At a recent meeting of the Society of English Naturalists, Lord Kelvin announced that during the last year 26 members had died at an average age of seventy-six and a half years; one reached the age of ninety-nine years, another ninety-seven, a third ninety-five, etc.
In commenting on the perfect compatibility of activity with longevity, the National Popular Review says:--"Great men usually carry their full mental vigor and activity into old age. M. Chevreul, M. De Lesseps, Gladstone, and Bismarck are evidences of this anthropologic fact. Pius IX, although living in tempestuous times, reached a great age in full possession of all his faculties, and the dramatist Crebillon composed his last dramatic piece at ninety-four, while Michael Angelo was still painting his great canvases at ninety-eight, and Titian at ninety still worked with all the vigor of his earlier years. The Austrian General Melas was still in the saddle and active at eighty-nine, and would have probably won Marengo but for the inopportune arrival of Desaix. The Venetian Doge Henry Dandolo, born at the beginning of the eleventh century, who lost his eyesight when a young man, was nevertheless subsequently raised to the highest office in the republic, managed successfully to conduct various wars, and at the advanced age of eighty-three, in alliance with the French, besieged and captured Constantinople. Fontenelle was as gay-spirited at ninety-eight as in his fortieth year, and the philosopher Newton worked away at his tasks at the age of eighty-three with the same ardor that animated his middle age. Cornaro was as happy at ninety as at fifty, and in far better health at the age of ninety-five than he had enjoyed at thirty.
"These cases all tend to show the value and benefits to be derived from an actively cultivated brain in ****** a long life one of comfort and of usefulness to its owner. The brain and spirits need never grow old, even if our bodies will insist on getting rickety and in falling by the wayside. But an abstemious life will drag even the old body along to centenarian limits in a tolerable state of preservation and usefulness. The foregoing list can be lengthened out with an indefinite number of names, but it is sufficiently long to show what good spirits and an active brain will do to lighten up the weight of old age. When we contemplate the Doge Dandolo at eighty-three animating his troops from the deck of his galley, and the brave old blind King of Bohemia falling in the thickest of the fray at Crecy, it would seem as it there was no excuse for either physical, mental, or moral decrepitude short of the age of four score and ten."Emperors and Kings, in short, the great ones of the earth, pay the penalty of their power by associate worriment and care. In ancient history we can only find a few rulers who attained four score, and this is equally the case in modern times. In the whole catalogue of the Roman and German Emperors, reckoning from Augustus to William I, only six have attained eighty years.