Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Curious Account Given By The Dumb Philosopher.
years before he was born . The many acts of injustice he had been guilty of , had such an effe-ft upon it , as I cannot better describe , than by having recoureto the algebraic term and character minus , by the help of which I can say , he lived—5 years , + 3 months , •*• 10 days , -s- I hour , and so much in his account of philosophical life , he was worse than nothing at his death . ' I have several other calculations of the like nature lying by me ,
which I shall lay before you at a convenient time ; in the mean while I have the satisfaftion to tell you , that by the many experiments I have made with this watch , I have attained to such a knowledge of the philosophicallife of ' man , that lam able to give a tolerable calculation , how far any one is advanced in this course , if I but hear or read a just account of his natural life and actions . If , therefore , any of your distant correspondents are desirous to know what age they . are attained to , upon sending me ^ such an account , they shall have the satisfaction they desire .
' It is with a sensible concern , I am obliged to say , that upon examining in this manner the lives of some of the ancient Heathens , I find them extend to a greater length than those of most of our modern Christians : and they may be accounted long and good livers ^ to whom we can , with justice , apply the epitaph a Peoman Consul , in the time of the Emperor Trajan , who died in the 73 d year of his natural age , caused to be placed on his tomb :
' Hicjacet Similis , Cujus tztas multorum annorum fttit , . Ipse septan dumtaxat annos vixit . ' 'That is , Here lies Similis , Who was many years old , But lived only seven years . '
' To make a just and advantageous application of these reflections , let a young and healthy person , attained to years of reason and refleftion , make a supposition of the time he may reasonably think he has got to live . If the life of man be reckoned , at a medium , thirty years , let us for argument ' s sake suppose twelve years : of these twelve , we must abate at least four for the necessary time of sleeping , dressing , and the like . Two years we may reckon for eating and
drinking ; and that person must be very assiduous who does not spend two more in pleasure and diversions . We have then four years left for the rational and beneficial occupations , of a philosophical life . No small part of that is probably spent in indifferency and indolence ; and he must be a very exaft observer of his duty , who has not some of it to balance against -time spent in irrational and unwarrantable
actions : so that , upon the whole , we have hardly more than two in twelve . ' tio BE CONCLUDED IK OUR NEXT . J
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Curious Account Given By The Dumb Philosopher.
years before he was born . The many acts of injustice he had been guilty of , had such an effe-ft upon it , as I cannot better describe , than by having recoureto the algebraic term and character minus , by the help of which I can say , he lived—5 years , + 3 months , •*• 10 days , -s- I hour , and so much in his account of philosophical life , he was worse than nothing at his death . ' I have several other calculations of the like nature lying by me ,
which I shall lay before you at a convenient time ; in the mean while I have the satisfaftion to tell you , that by the many experiments I have made with this watch , I have attained to such a knowledge of the philosophicallife of ' man , that lam able to give a tolerable calculation , how far any one is advanced in this course , if I but hear or read a just account of his natural life and actions . If , therefore , any of your distant correspondents are desirous to know what age they . are attained to , upon sending me ^ such an account , they shall have the satisfaction they desire .
' It is with a sensible concern , I am obliged to say , that upon examining in this manner the lives of some of the ancient Heathens , I find them extend to a greater length than those of most of our modern Christians : and they may be accounted long and good livers ^ to whom we can , with justice , apply the epitaph a Peoman Consul , in the time of the Emperor Trajan , who died in the 73 d year of his natural age , caused to be placed on his tomb :
' Hicjacet Similis , Cujus tztas multorum annorum fttit , . Ipse septan dumtaxat annos vixit . ' 'That is , Here lies Similis , Who was many years old , But lived only seven years . '
' To make a just and advantageous application of these reflections , let a young and healthy person , attained to years of reason and refleftion , make a supposition of the time he may reasonably think he has got to live . If the life of man be reckoned , at a medium , thirty years , let us for argument ' s sake suppose twelve years : of these twelve , we must abate at least four for the necessary time of sleeping , dressing , and the like . Two years we may reckon for eating and
drinking ; and that person must be very assiduous who does not spend two more in pleasure and diversions . We have then four years left for the rational and beneficial occupations , of a philosophical life . No small part of that is probably spent in indifferency and indolence ; and he must be a very exaft observer of his duty , who has not some of it to balance against -time spent in irrational and unwarrantable
actions : so that , upon the whole , we have hardly more than two in twelve . ' tio BE CONCLUDED IK OUR NEXT . J