naturall excesse of heat set on fire with the accesse of the externall heat of the aire Now for such as abound with too much moisture their best habitation in my iudgement is in hot and drie regions that the heat and drought of the soile may abate the superfluity of the humor But there are some of a moderate and well proportioned constitution and if any man shall aske what country is best for them to dwel in I answer that there are two sorts of men thus tempered some are of a more weake and lesse hardy disposition and to them I would prescribe a dwelling in countries rather hot then cold that the heat of the place may comfort and strengthen the heate of their bodies Others againe are more hardy better able to indure any not extreame violence of cold and for them it is best to liue in colder climates for so is their heat better inabled to performe it functions of digestion and such like and therefore Aristotle in his Politicks saith that Northren men and generally such as dwell in colder countries are stronger and bigger bodied and most an end better couraged and longer liued for the coldnesse of the compassing aire reflects the heat into the inward parts and by that reflexion the heats force is increased and the parts gathered better and closer together which both further the performance of its duties And that is the reason why men in Winter are more hungry and deuouring than in Summer as experience teacheth vs all for the stomacke is strengthned by the heats compression to the better concocting of the receiued nourishment Thus therefore may wee conclude with the exposition of Aristotle his opinion in this case when he saith that hot places are fittest for long life in his booke of the Length and shortnesse of mans life and in his Politicks The inhabitants of colder climates are stronger and longer liued for thus may we reconcile this apparent contradiction that for men of more cold complexions hot places are most preseruatiue and healthfull and for the contrary complexioned men contrary affected places so that if two of the same constitution imagine them both to be hot liue the one in a cold the other in an hot region if their heat was not accordingly proportioned to their moisture but vnequally in the excesse he that made choise of the colder habitation prouided best for his life And thus haue we briefelie set downe the common-receiued causes of long life where-out by the consequence of contraries wee may deduce the causes of short life And they are first the small quantity and watrishnesse of the moisture Secondly the superfluous abundance of excrements Thirdly the badnesse and vnholesomenesse of the soile Fourthly the vngentle aspects of the Starres that ruled either in our conception or birth Fiftly want of good nourishment Sixtly intemperance either in our diet or exercise or obeying of our affections To which some adde the fewnesse or tendernesse of teeth for that is a signe of thickenesse in the bone of the head the matter allotted to the teeths generation being turned into the substance of the scull which also importeth the weakenesse of the braine which is by meanes thereof vnfit for breathing and therefore being of a moist disposition the more fit for putrefaction as standing-waters soonest putrefie and gather filth but this I take rather for a signe then a cause of short life Now come we to that we first and principally intended to shew the differences of mens ages and the causes thereof together with their seuerall and singular properties wherein we will deale so much the more sparingly by reason of those doubtes and difficulties remooued in the former part of the treatise so that we shall not neede to digresse into any by-controuersies but keepe a direct and a straight course And to begin with the Definition for more orderly proceeding it may thus briefely be described An age is a period and tearme of mans life wherein his naturall complexion and temperature naturally and of its owne accord is euidently changed For such is the disposition and nature of our bodie that by the continuall combat and interchangable dominion of the euer-iarring elements it often changeth its primary constitution so that though there were no outward cause of transmutation which notwithstanding are many and manifold yet haue wee that home-bred cause within vs that would in time alter our temperature for our naturall heat vncessantly working vpon our natural moisture doth though not suddenly change the proportion into extreames yet by degrees perceiuably preuaileth more and more ouer the humidity For so see wee the same body in our youth and child-hood diuersly tempered our infancy ful of moisture as the fluid soft substance of our flesh manifestly declareth our youth bringeth a farther degree of solidity our riper age euer tēperate thence still declineth our body vnto colde and drinesse till at length death ceaseth vpon our bodies being the last end and period of our life But euery slight change of the foure qualities proportion changeth not our temperature for then we shuld euery day haue a diuers complexion our bodies eftsoones with wine and exercise changed from cold to heat and by the contrary from heat to cold yet by reason of the short indurance of these distemperatures the body returning to its former constitution we cannot say there is a new complexion wrought in the body for a temperature or complextion is a firme and standing habit of the body Nor yet must wee imagine the talnesse and growing of the body or the new budding of haires to be causes sufficient to procure this distinction but the variation of our originall constitution is the true and proper cause of this diuersity and difference And yet not euery change of the complexion but that onely which proceedeth from that inwardly ingendred cause of destructions for many times by the vnseasonable and immoderate heat of the aire as also by intemperate and riotous liuing men euen in the most milde temperat countries alter their complexions and with the Aethiopian become euen decrepit old men if we respect their constitutions and those other incident qualities of old age before they haue finished the full tearme of thirty yeeres and therefore was it added in the description that it must be a naturall and a selfe-alteration Now according to these naturall and euident alterations of heat and moistures proportion so may we best most properly diuide the ages Pythagoras diuides thē into four kinds or rather setteth downe their number which be according to his reckoning foure in number Child-hood youth man-hood old age proportioning our life to the foure parts of the yeere our Child-hood to the spring wherein all things together with a pleasant verdour and greenenesse flourish and by a plentifull supply of moisture continually increase in growth Our youth vnto Summer for that growen strength of the body and minde Our man-age vnto the Autumne or Haruest when after the
two touching the diuers consideration of this difference according to the diuersity of that subiect vnto which they are incident For in these tearms of length and shortnesse of life we may compare either things of the same kinde as man with man or things of diuers kinds as reasonable creatures with liuelesse sensible things for there are some vnreasonable creatures longer liued then man for so Hesiodus reporteth of the Crow that he liueth out nine mens liues measuring euerie 〈◊〉 to be 100 yeeres the Hart by the same autâ—ors witnesse thrise as many the Rauen trebleth the Harts endurance and thence was that plaint of dying Theophrastus and complaint of natures inequality as it were blindfolded disposition of her benefits especially in this kinde that to Harts and Crowes so thanklesly had giuen so long time of continuance which was denied vnto man that could and would haue better imploied that benefit Which complaint was personally renewed and aggrauated by Bewaldus an old Grammarian for the sticks not in the person of some captious Atheist to expostulate the matter with God why our life in these times is so curtalled that for the many hundreds of yeeres which in the first age of the world men liued wee haue our stint and limits within the compasse of little more than halfe an hundred But Iosephus in his first booke of Antiquties giueth these reasons and first of all the wholesome goodnesse of their nourishment and the outward compassing elements which they inhabited For their corrupted nature was not greedily caried with desire of their corruptions increase as headlongly on the sudden to engulfe it selfe into all extremity but by degrees and lingringly as vpon constraint by little and little descendeth from that top perfection of corruption And as euery thing was neerest vnto that beginning so was it cleerest and lesse tainted with corruption We therfore in the last age and exteremity of the world are in a more extreame degree of corruption by reason of that frequent alteration in the elements when euery mutation addeth somewhat to the begun impurity A second reason was Gods wil bountifulnes the benefit whereof was not bounded in that small compasse and limit of time but extended also vnto vs and to our posterity For God therfore granted them a longer continuance for reuealing of many hidden mysteries especially in Astrologie for the course of many of the celestiall bodies could neuer haue bene learned no not so much as in any mediocrity had not God giuen some of them at least six hundred yeeres to liue in in which time the great yeere as they call it is fulfilled and perfected To which wee may adde the fewnesse of the earths inhabitants in the beginning of the world God preuenting the dispeopling of the new world and prouiding for its store and replenishing And yet if we beleeue Anacroon I know not how credible a witnesse being a Poet within these few ages last past Arganthonius king of the Tartessians liued an hundred and fiftie yeeres Cinyras of Cyprus an hundred and sixtie yeeres Eginus two hundred and as Alexander and Cornelius report there was one in Illyrium called Dodon that liued the full and complet terme of six hundred yeeres and Xenophon writeth of one who in the I le of the Latines liued eight hundred yeeres But I am of opinion with Pliny that it is very vnlikely seeing it may bee that they erred in their computation not knowing how according to diuersitie of nations in former ages there were manifold and sundry measures of the yeares for the old Arcadians made foure yeeres of one of ours allotting vnto euerie yeere three moneths The Egyptians made as many yeeres as moneths according to the Moones finished and renewed course and according vnto this reckoning it will be no strange thing that a man should euen in these daies liue a thousand yeeres But not to prosecute the diuers continuance of things in diuers kindes as also to let passe the farther examination of the decaied estate of mans life lest wee againe reuiue the now quenched fire of godlesse indignation at the shortnesse of our life we wil come to the most pertinent comparison of man with man in this kinde if first we shall onely remember what was Plinies opinion of the shortning our liues namely that God herein did greatly gratifie vs by cutting off these daies of miserie agreeable to which Silemus being demanded what was the greatest happinesse and good that God could doe a man made answer Neuer to be borne and the next vnto that to die quickly But touching the causes of long life wee may thus brieflie dichotomise them for they are either inward or outward the inward causes are such as either we haue naturally ingrafted or els gotten by arte industrie wisdome that of nature is the good temperature and proportionate mixture of the foure first qualities in the body for moderate heat that is vnproportionate to the quantitie of moisture rather hastneth death by the too speedie consumption of its moist food than any way prolongeth life as we see in men of cholericke constitution So also too great colde that is ouerswaying the quantity or vertue of our natural heat shortneth our life and thence it is that old men the neerer they draw vnto their ends haue their bodies ouergrowen with cold whereupon all the Astrologians haue obserued Saturne to be a Planet enemie vnto life as hauing a vertue of cold and drought accordingly as some imagine was he painted with a sithe in his hand cutting downe as it were and killing men with the operation and infusion of these two deadly qualities which may also be said of the excesse of the other two contrarie qualities moisture and drought for too much moisture oppresseth the naturall heat as wee see greene-wood quench an vnequall quantitie of fire and thence it is that willowes and such like whose almost naturall place is the riuers side are of short continuance because their too much too waterish moisture drowneth their heat So that hereby as I take it it is manifest that none of these qualities singly and by themselues are true causes of long life but iointly all in a good and iust proportion Now if any man shall out of Aristotle obiect that the two qualities of life namely heat and moisture are onely causes of long life we may answer that these two by themselues procure not length of life but in a certain measure proportion Now the rebater of the heats too too actiue qualitie is his contrarie cold and the moderatour temperer of the moistures accesse is drought so that in euery man the foure first qualities are requisite yet were two onely mentioned by Aristotle as being those onely which directly cause long life the other two onely inclusiuely set downe as being no otherwise effectually profitable for life than as they temper and abate the excesse of the two principall But because euery moisture is not
Egyptians auouched the Fly to be the Hieroglyphick of anger and pertinacie because as Pierius obserueth it is of so cholericke and fierie a disposition and we see in experience men in anger fiery coloured which proceeds from their heats inflaming of the blood Now heat vnproportioned vnto the moisture as is aforesaid quickly consumeth that small store of moisture prouided for its food and so procureth death To these may be added that welknowen Probleme of Aristotle why children breath faster and with lesse intermission then doe better growen men The answer is their great store of heat in comparison of that small measure in the after-ages causeth nature for its better preseruation to draw the aire oftner for the cooling of the hearts heat and that is the reason that men who haue beene anie long time troubled with an ague or any such like distemperature are alwaies verie short winded The contrary Aristotle witnesseth to follow in things contrarily affected for so he prooneth the horse and exe not to haue so much heat in them because they take not their breath so thicke together implying that the cold temper of the heart and other inwards is cause of longer breath which is also euident in reason for the attraction and emission of the aire being ordained onely for the cooling and tempring of the harts heat according to the necessity thereof must breathing be either oftner or more seldome What is the reason that in our youth we are more hungrie and haue a greater desire of meat than in our declining and elder ages The reason is our sound speedy digestion of fore receiued nourishment performed by meanes of our naturall heat whence ariseth a new sucking of the veines and so an incitement of the appetite Whence is it that old men are commonly so iealously suspicious The cause is their incredulity hardnesse of beliefe which it selfe also proceedeth from their much experience of mens wilie practises according to that The burnt child dreadeth the fire For such is the extreme badnesse of our nature that still we go from one extreme vnto another so become of men extremely credulous in our last age extremely suspicious And that indeed was Aristotles remedie who to draw vs from conetousnesse biddes vs incline vnto prodigalitie and yet onely with this condition if we cannot at the first instant after our long custome in the one extreme light vpon the mediocritie betweene both What maketh them so sottishly deuoted to the things of this world that when they are neerest vnto death they are most desirous not only to keepe that which before they had gotten but more more to increase their store The reason is giuen by Aristotle in his Rhetoricks and it is their exceeding great desire of life euen after those many daies which they haue forespent Whēce proceedeth that other inordinate desire of things necessary for life-maintenance they hauing in their experience obserued how hardly things necessary are gotten how easily also they are lost What is the cause why old men are so talkatiue and full of words Either because nature loues to exercise that part most which is least decaied or that knowledge the onely thing old age can bragge of cannot be manifested but by vtterance or that old men the nigher they are to their end they much more desire to haue their memory not onely by children and posterity but euen by the speeches and deedes fore-vttered and performed in their life or that wisedome as all good things naturally communicate their good properties makes them desirous to profit others Whence is that frosty horinesse that vsually lighteth vpon mens heads in the winter and coldest age of their life There are some that imagine it to proceed from the drinesse of those excrements which also they goe about to prooue by the like experiment in bones which after their humour is drawen out by seething grow more and more white till at length they come vnto a perfect and full whitenesse But the vntrue resolution of the doubt propoūded is therby discouered because that men who vse to couer their haire are soner gray-headed than those that vse no couering when as notwithstanding it is manifest that couered haire hath more store of moisture than that which hath beene exposed vnto the iniurious tossing of the winde and the scorching heat of the sunne Therefore I rather allow of Aristotles reason namely the put refaction of that excrementall humour whereof our haire is made for our naturall heat through its vnintermitted operation being disabled fully to digest that excrement sent from within to that outmost couering our skin for the haires nourishment it putrefieth and corrupteth Now that there is such a rottennesse and putrefaction in the haire it is euident by experience of such as by long sickenesse haue become vntimely grayheaded for after the recouery of their disease the feeblenesse of their heate being together with their health restored the haire receiues its former flourishing and that I may so speake vnwasted greenenesse which restitution can be attributed vnto no other cause but only to the through concoction of that vndigested excrement by the restored heat The like whereof we see also in corne and grasse that hauing lost its florishing greenenesse by the continuall beating vpon and ouerwhelming of the waters afterward being by the Sunnes liuely heat cherished and reuiued resumeth its naturall vigour and viridity And that this hoariheadednesse proceeds from a defect of heat it is farther euidenced by a strange example recorded by Scaliger of a man who in one nights space had his head ouergrowen with hoarinesse The cause was this The Prince of Mantoua Francis Gonzaga had vpon suspicion of traiterous conspiracy either against his person or state imprisoned one of his kin alliance that for his age was wholy vncapable of that alteration and vpon the next morrow newes was brought vnto the Prince that his head was all vpon the sudden growen hoarily gray which almost miraculous alteration mooued the Princes minde to grant him life and free vse of his former liberty Now if any man should demand the reason of this sudden change it is giuen by the Philosophers and is nothing else but the extremity of his griefe and feare whence proceeded that withdrawing of the dispersed heat vnto the inward parts and so was the humorous nourishment of the haire for want of concoction turned into rottennesse And thus haue we briefly runne ouer the diuersities of mans ages together with the true causes and properties of the particulars hauing premised the determination of those vsually incident controuersies for our better and more direct proceeding in the principall treatise not as Prolegomena or preface to the purpose but as things essentiall and of the substance of our matter Wherein if I haue either omitted any thing pertinent or admitted ought that is superfluous I hope the eie of fauour wil wincke at my missing as for the malicious seeing I cannot looke for fauourable acceptance I weigh not their verdict onely as the Poet saith Equitem mihi plaudere curo The baser sort I care to please no more One if I please enough is me therefore FINIS
cold and drought both enemies to life hasteneth the destruction of the body whereunto it is incident The second inward cause of long life is the moderation of our affections Whether it be that naturall appetite of meat and drinke for nourishmēt or those other of anger loue ioy lust sorrow and such like For all these are auaileable both waies either in excesse to kill or in moderation to saue Touching the moderate vse of meats and drinkes what neede we seeke farre for proofe of its profitablenes to preserue life when we see so many daily by surfetting ouercharging their stomacks with too much and too riotus vse of meats vntimely end their daies and contrariwise men very crasie and sickely by temperancie and moderation many times protract their liues almost to an incredible length For so is it reported of one Herodicus a student in Aristotle his daies the most weake and sickely of any that liued in that time by the testimony both of Plato of Aristotle who notwithstanding by his diligent care and guidance of himselfe liued full out 100. yeeres and no maruell for so did he repaire the daily decay of his humidity by supply of nourishment and neither ouerwhelmed his heat with the abundance of moisture nor mingled his radicall moisture with too much externall superfluous impurities Where we may resolue that doubt how it comes to passe that often drinkers of wine for the most part hasten their death The reason is that the vehement heat of the wine consumeth their moisture and so by detraction of the heats food in time also extinguisheth the heat Now if any man shall require me to prescribe a diet vnto him though I be no Physitian yet will I referre him vnto that of the excellent Emperour who neuer eat till he was hungry nor euer proceeded to a gluting satiety For the extreames are dangerous both excesse and defect too much meate hindring good digestion and ingendring crudities too little giuing occasion of the heats too sudden preuailing ouer the moisture both which are friends of death Not would I counsell men strictly to tie themselues vnto set houres for that saith Paracelsus is dangerous causing many times either delaie of applying nourishment or too speedy ministring before the former digestion is finished And heere we may seasonably annex the vse of exercise for that is a thing very auaileable to digestion dispersing the nourishment into the parts of the body and being as it were the bellowes to kindle and reuiue our naturall heate for ouermuch rest and ceasing from motion cooleth the body And as the elementish fire which we vse vnlesse it bee sometime blowen and fed as it were with aire is extinguished so our naturall heat without exercise and motion is after a sort cast on sleep or rather benummed whence proceedeth that other daughter of dulnesse collection of excremental superfluities the heat being not able to digest our receiued nourishment thence is that corruption and rottennesse which ouertaketh these slow-backes as we see standing water soonest putrifie and gather filth Wherefore Aristotle enquiring the causes of the toilesome trauell of some women in child-birth ouer others setteth down this as principall among the rest namely their idlenesse and want of exercise for his experience of women in other countries so accustomed to paines taking had taught him for to them child-bearing was not so painefull their labour consuming those excrements that are the vsuall impediments of ease in that kinde Nor will I take vpon me to limit any man to any kind of exercise rather than an other or appoint any time although this caueat will not be amisse prescribed that they vse not to stirre themselues more violently than is ordinary before the through digestion of meate for then they clogge their stomacks and make them vnfit for after concoction and withall fill their bodies with raw humours which by exercise are dispersed through the veines into al the parts of the body onely as inother things so especially in exercise of what kinde soeuer either for delight or of paines let them remember moderation that it be neither too much nor to little Not too much that is neither too vehement nor yet continual but interchangeable for both these by consuming of the spirits are alike hurtfull not too little for continued rest and idlenesse as is afore said engendreth putrefaction Where the consideration of the moderate vse of sleepe and waking is very incident for they are both things necessary for maintenance of life in their mediocrity both as hurtfull if beyond measure For immoderate and vnseasonable watching wasteth the spirits and by consuming of the vitall iuice causeth leannesse in the body enfeebleth the parts thereof hindreth the operation of the senses drieth the marrow and the braine insomuch that oftentimes it proceedeth to doting and frensie So likewise too much sleepe hindreth our health and well-fare by loosing the parts of the body dulling the naturall heat consuming the moisture and such like But moderatly vsed and interchangeably they are notable meanes of procuring and preseruing health not only because this varietie and change is verie delightsome and refreshing but much more by restoring or hindring the decay of Nature Now touching these other affections as anger ioie sorrow and such like though wee read not of many that haue suddenly died for anger yet by reason of that sudden emission of hear into the outward parts of the body and kindling as it were the fire of choler it must needs be very hurtful when as all suddennesse especially ioyned with vehemency is an horror vnto nature And choler inflameth the blood whence proceedeth that vnreasonablenesse raging vsually obserued in men ouermuch angred But examples are plentifull of such as with sudden and immoderat ioy haue died as Pliny reports of Sophocles and Dionysius the Sicilian Tyrant that immediately vpon tidings of victory gaue vp the ghost And Liuie maketh mention of two mothers at Rome that after the bloudy battell of Cannas for ioie of the safe and vnexpected returne of their sonnes suddenly fell downe dead the one meeting her sonne at the City gate the other in her house bewayling the reported death of her sonne when on the sudden beside her expectation safely presented himselfe to her sight The like also Gellius writeth of one Dingenes of Rhodes that hauing his three sons for the mastery obtained at the games in one day crowned after his sonnes imbracements and the peoples applause suddenly yeelded vp the ghost The meanes of this death was the sudden dilatation of the heart the vitall spirits and the heat whose beginning is the heart being too farre caried from their fountaine So also read wee of Aristotle that not able to finde the reason why Euripus a part of the sea situated betweene Aulis of Bootia and Eubaea ebbed flowed seuen times a day for very greefe died the means and maner of his death being the too great contraction of the
spirits whereby the heat was as it were with smoke chaoked The like is reported of Diodorus a logician who for shame that he could not at the first answer the trifling question which Stilpo put out suddenly ended his daies Which is also written of Homer who in the I le Ios sitting on the sea shore demanded of the fisher-men if they had taken any thing they thus obscurely in riddle-wise made ananswer Those that we tooke we left behind those that we could not catch we bring with us For in the sun-shine as they say it is shipmens fashions they made inquisition for their backbiting familiars and some they tooke and cruelly pressed vnto death leauing their liuelesse carcases to bee deuoured of the fishes those that craftily had insinuated themselues either into their flesh or into the inside of their apparrell they were faine to bring away with them But quicke witted Homer not able on the sudden to expound this probleme for shame as Plutarch and Herodotus write of him gaue vp the ghost For the spirits and blood as in all kinde of feare it falleth out retiring to the inward parts as to a tower of defence by their sudden retrait and reuerberation redouble the heate and so inflaming the heart not able to be cooled againe by respiration stifles the patient Concerning Venery deaths best harbinger I shall not neede to recite the infinite examples of them that by meanes therof haue hastened their deaths nor indeed is it possible to number those innumerable troops that through lust either before the actuall accomplishment or after the too frequent satisfying the same haue ended their youthfull daies It was well said of one that Venus prouideth not for those that are already borne but for those that shal be borne and therefore Auicenna a learned Philosopher Physitian doubted not to say that the emission of a little seed more than the body could well beare was a great deale more hurtfull than the losse of fortie times so much blood For it wasteth the spirits weakeneth the stomack enfeebleth and drieth vp the braine and marrow whereby especially it hastneth death And the truth heereof Aristotle prooueth by his experimentall obseruation for so hath he noted the cocke-sparow by immoderate and too frequent vse of Venery very seldome to liue out the tearme of two yeeres and the same reason hee giueth why the Mule a mixt creature begotten betweene an horse an asse is longer liued thā either of them for his insting in that kinde is but once only through the whole course of his life To which we may adde the diuersity of the sex for the male according vnto Aristotle in euerie kinde almost is by nature better fitted for long life than the female hauing greater force of heat and the moisture more firm better able to resist than the fluid substance of the female and thence it is that women for the most part are sooner perfected than men being sooner fit for generation sooner in the flower and prime of their age and finally sooner old for their heat though little yet sooner preuaileth ouer that fluid thinne substance and moisture of theirs than it possibly can ouer that solid and compact humiditie which is in man But lest our Treatise grow too big we wil proceed to those other outward causes of long life such as bee the influences of the Stars either in our conception and birth or in the country soile wherin we liue as also the goodnesse of the soile it selfe both of the earth aire For though it be true that the celestiall bodies haue no direct action either of inclination or constraint vpon the reasonable soule of man which is immateriall yet is it as true that they haue singular and especiall operations vpon our bodies for so wee see the fruitfulnesse and barrennesse of the earth depends vpon the heauens good and bad aspect the sea followes the motion and alteration of the Moone the yeere distinguished into its foure parts according to the accesse or farther absence of the Sun and therefore Galen the father of Physitians counselled his scholers to haue especiall respect vnto the coniunction of the Planets in their signes whensoeuer they vndertake any cure and which is more fit for the present purpose the Astrologers haue assigned vnto euery Planet a monthly dominion ouer the childe conceiued in the wombe according to their order and situation The first moneth is allotted vnto Saturne the second vnto Iupiter and so foorth in order vntill they haue all finished their dominion and then they begin againe which is the especiall reason alleaged by some why the childe that is borne in the eight moneth for the most part dieth when as oftentimes those that are brought foorth a moneth sooner or later liue in verie good health for Saturne is a planet whose influence causeth colde and drinesse which both are qualities enemies vnto life Now followeth the last though not the least cause of long life and that is the goodnesse of the soile and wholesomnesse of the aire for it is so recorded in Histories and approoued by the testimonie of our late trauellers that in that part of India which is called Oner the inhabitants are very long liued and for the most part very healthfull insomuch that many of them liue vntill they bee aboue an hundred yeeres old and wee see by experience in our country how perilous not onely pestilent aire is but euen the vnholesomnes of the fennie countries that are often anoied with stinking and vnsauorie fogges Aristotle in his treatise of the length and shortnesse of life maketh choice of a hot countrey as fittest for preseruation and maintenance of life for so he obserueth it that serpents bred and brought vp in hot countries are generally bigger bodied then those that are found in colder climets and those fishes that breed in the red sea are also longer than those in the seas which are not so hot and that though they bee of the same kinde which is a manifest proofe of their longer continuance els how commeth it to passe that they haue greater growth and againe those creatures that liue in cold climets haue a more waterish kinde of humour and fitter for congelation whence followeth the speedier destruction of the inhabitants but the trueth is that neither hot countries nor colder climets are of themselues any furtherance vnto long life for those that are of a cholericke fierie constitution liue longer in cold countries and such as be of colder complexion liue best and longest in hot regions but according to the diuersitie of mens complexions so liue they better or worse in diuers countries Those that are too hot of cōstitution by my counsell shall make choice of a country in some measure and degrees cold lest the outward heat of the circumiacent aire increase the fire within and make it more vehement and thence is it that those in the hottest part of Ethiopia are shortest liued hauing that