to be weakned and in the end cleane consumed onely by want of interchangeable rest and ceasing from its operation For as we see fire not wasted by much vse but lingringly extinguished by decay and want of fit fewell for to feed vpon so our home-bred naturall heat not tired with ouer-working but languishing with the decay of fit food is at length together with our moisture its naturall prouided foode cleane consumed To which may be added that saying of Fernelius to this purpose that though Aesculapius himselfe the God of Physicke had the guiding of the most temperate complexioned man that can be imagined and that from his birth to keepe him from all outward annoiances whatsoeuer yet hath he in himselfe an home-bred enemy by little and little to spoile him of his life Vnnaturall and violent death is when our naturall heat either with too much cold or excessiue externall heat or with an immoderate measure of moisture is extinguished According to which two kinds of death the learned School-men haue deuised a double tearme of our life There is say they A tearme of nature and there is A tearme beside nature The naturall tearme is that vtmost time that a man by his complexion can reach vnto whch is farther off or nerer according to the differences of mens temperatures The terme or limit beside nature is when mans life either commeth short of that length which by his complexion hee may attaine vnto or is protracted and prolonged beyond the course of nature that they cal the end or terme of Gods prescience fore-appointment in his vnreaueled will which a man can neither preuent nor yet prolong and this hath for the most part place in violent death and was therefore also propounded by those deuout Schoole-men lest men should not thinke they depended only vpon chance or fell out without Gods especiall counsell and disposing For so we see in daily experience many men in the prime of their yeeres and strength of their age either by riot or famine pestilence or sword suddenly cut off and we are many times mooued with pity in that behalfe bewailing their estate that in our iudgements might haue liued a great deale longer as indeed they might if we respect what they were capable of by their complexion but in regard of Gods decree and purpose it was impossible for them to passe that moment and point of time for Gods prescience can neuer be deceiued And this to auoid tediousnesse may briefly serue for the certainetie of the end of particular men Now for the indurance of man in specie in which regard onely he is said to be a part of the world we may passe ouer vnto it by way of Prolepsis or preoccupation For it may be obiected that though there is a limited endurance of particular and single men yet there may be a perpetuall preseruation of the species or kinde and therefore God hath bestowed on man a faculty of procreation to propagate his kinde that though euery man must of a naturall necessity die yet might hee leaue an other of his owne kinde behinde him that so there might be a continuall and euerlasting succession To which we answer that if they grant a corruption in the particular they must withall grant it in the species For the species being a thing existent onely in imagination not hauing any reall being but as wee conceiue of it in the particulars it is a necessary illation that from the corruption of all the particulars we may conclude the like of the generall But to shew it more plainely by a demonstratiue proceeding we may obserue the like course of decay in the species as there is in the indiuiduum For as nutrition is to the particular so is generation to the species in the case of their continuance and preseruation wherefore as by the nourishment we take for restitution of our naturall moisture there being supplied not so pure humidity as was lost the particulars decaying by little and little are at last cleane consumed so by procreation the maintenace of our species the purity of our complexion being by degrees and by time diminished at length there followes euen of necessitie an absolute corruption Now as I conceiue of it the decay commeth thus for the particulars whose function this generation is being by continuall mixture of outward nourishment corrupted the seed the matter and means of propagation cannot but be tainted with like corruption And that is the chiefe reason amongst other lesse principall that men in this age of the world are of lesse continuance than they were in former time From all which we thus conclude if the naturall vigour of the species be by little and little continually weakened there must of necessity in the end follow a full and perfect corruption For as Aristotle said of the diuision of any thing finite that by often detraction though but of a little quantity the whole becommeth at length vncapable of diuision so by continuall wasting of the vertue of the kinde there followeth at length euen of necessity a totall and ineuitable extinguishing Now to that friuolous fruitlesse question whether this end and destruction be of nature or proceedeth from any effectual operation of God wee may thus answer that we dispute not what shall be in this case but what may bee and according to that sense wee say that euen of ai naturall necessitie though God should not vntimely cut off the thred of our life yet euen of its owne accord should whole mankind haue an end which is manifest by that forenamed continuall curtalling of our life obserued by experience and noted out of the legends of antiquities for before that vniuersall deluge in Noahs time we reade of some that liued six seuen eight nine hundred yeeres as Adam Noah Methusalem and others After the floud he that liued longest recorded in holy historie exceeded not the age of a hundred and twentie yeeres some few yeeres after in Dauids time it fell to seuentie yeeres or if there were any ouerplus it was mingled with labour and sorrow more worthy the name of death than life So that we may hence conclude that it is impossible for mankinde to last for euer hauing inwardly in his nature sufficient and vnpreuentable causes of dissolution Hauing thus euidenced the truth of our two positions that there is a set time of endurance vnto euery man and vnto all mankind and learning by experience the naturall and true mother of knowledge that among the particulars so me haue a longer some a shorter time of continuance and that euen by nature it remaineth that with all possible breuity and perspicuity wee set downe the causes naturall of this naturall difference which we can no otherwise doe than by propounding the receiued causes of the length and shortnesse of mans life and according as they are more or lesse in any man so iudge of their effects Aristotle in his preface to this treatise premiseth a word or
THE DIFFERENCES OF THE AGES OF MANS Life Together with the Originall causes Progresse and End thereof Written by the learned HENRIE CVFFE sometime Fellow of Merton College in Oxford Ann. Dom. 1600. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by Arnold Hatfield for Martin Clearke 1607. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE and Noble Lord ROBERT Lord Willughby Beake and Eresby in earth the ground and in heauen the accomplishment of all true happinesse My very good Lord I Doe not vnlike vnto bank-rupt-debters pay what I owe with another mans purse For which notwithstanding I could plead prescription from beyond the memorie of man and deduce presidents for excuse aboue the low flats of necessitie The greatest doe it why not the meanest For the actions of superiours be rules of action vnto inferiours virum magnum sequi est penè sapere as the world goeth yet this I dare professe vnto your Honour the payment is in good and lawfull money as good as any that goeth current with Merchants and if the triall bee true by touch or teste farre beyond the alloy of ordinarie mintage A coyner it had whom Fame hath reported for my selfe did neuer de facie knowe him as skilfull a Master in this trade as our shoppes haue brought foorth anie Who though hee verified that ancient by-word that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet hath he washed off from the walles of Lycoeum that blacke aspersion of Petronius Ego arbitror adolescentulos in scholis stultissimos fieri quia nihil eorum quae in vsu habemus aut audiunt aut vident The worke carrieth both parts of perfection to Delight and giue Profit To Delight the affection with pleasing varietie and indow the minde with excellent formes which like the two handmaids of Queene Hester should sustaine euery passage of learning though it come not to the presence of royall Ahashuerosh To Profit by the matter discussed and cleered which is in part the knowledge of our selues that which the Poet sayd Came from Heauen a good meanes to effectuate that which the Prophet desired Teach me O Lord to number my daies that I may applie my heart vnto wisedome To please in profit which it selfe is Content and also in the maner wherin it is caried verie perspicuous and in good method for which cause I haue not added anie marginall directions to stand as Mercuries statues in high-waies of old pointing the finger vnto consequents It came vnto my hands vt è naufragio tabula and I return it to your Lordship as Lord of the soile whereon it was cast For vnto your Honor I owe my selfe both in respect of priuate seruice as also of that right-woorthy house into which by mariage your Honor is inserted whereto I stande obliged in my best indeuours You haue it whole and intire as it came vnto my hands without anie purloining or imbeazeling a sincere transcript from the first originall which I am informed was his own I durst not aduenture though happely I could to adde anie thing at all vnto that table in which Apelles pensill had beene Thus crauing the continuance of your Honorable respect and acceptance of my tendred dutie by proxey vntill my owne meanes doe inable my sufficiencie which hitherto hath beene nipped in the budde by the frosts of the night or withered in the blade for want of moisture I thrice humblie take my leaue and rest your Honors in all seruices R. M. The Preface THe learned Heraclite no lesse elegant than enigmaticall among other his quaint speeches hath this saying of speciall remembrance and obseruation That the greedy mettall mongers in their too eager search for the measured worlds wealth after long toile and trouble finde paruum in magno a little pure substance in a great deale of vnprofitable earth Contrarily it fareth in the inquisition and pursute of learning where we often finde with a little abstractiue speculation magnum in paruo much matter in few words euery short golden sentence and particle thereof containing incredible store of most pure substance For as the cunning Cosmographers draw the whole compasse of the wide World into the narrow precincts of a small Mappe so haue our learned Artists contracted the vnconceiueable amplitude of the Liberall Sciences into volumes of small quantity But as gold the purest of all mettals howsoeuer couched in a little compasse is many times beaten out into a maruellous amplitude so the short Aphorismes of Philosophie in the circuit of a small period comprehend substance sufficient to fill whole volumes Which truth is confirmed or rather manifested by the present matter we intreat of whereby as Pythagoras finding the print of Hercules his foote gessed thereby at the proportion of his whole body so we by the view of this so little and neglected a peece of Philosophie may gather what we are to thinke of the whole body that I may so speake of learning Which I obserue the rather because I see many shallow headed artificers oftentimes condemne vs of folly that spend our whole Life in the study of good Letters and yet such is our grosse conceit we neuer come to the requisite perfection of Knowledge As if our Artes were like the mechanicall sciences of base Prentises that may be throughly learned in the compasse of seauen yeeres It was well said of one Ars longa vita breuis we haue a great taske and a short time I haue read of some who in the compasse of three yeeres haue sailed about the world but I neuer yet heard of any who in the whole course of his life how laboriously so euer passed ouer was able to compasse the whole circle of Sciences And therefore Theophrastes a learned Philosopher lying on his death bed accused Nature of vnkindnesse or rather want of discretion that so inconsiderately doth bestow the inestimable benefit of long life vpon brute beastes and sensible creatures that can neither acknowledge so high a fauour nor by their length of daies benefit themselues and others but man that might in time restore decaied nature by perfecting the imperfect artes hath his induring but as a moment implying that the whole course of a mans life was not time sufficient to worke perfection in And therefore well said Sigismunde the Emperour to a Doctor of Law whom for an excellent Stratagem against the enemy he had knighted not long before when at an assembly of his Peeres and Counsellers the Doctor doubted to whether company he might with greatest credit ioyne himselfe Is it doubtfull said the Emperour whether learning or military experience is more honorable I can in one day make a thousand good souldiers but I am not able in a thousand yeeres to make one tolerable Doctor So that it is no maruell though Socrates after his long time of life yet on his death bed confessed he had many things to learne And me thinketh these nimble witted tradesmen doe not so much magnifie their owne quicke conceit as publish the
manifold turmoiles and dangers of our fore-spent life the good giftes and indowments of our minde as we see it fall out in the fruites of Nature receiue a kind of seasonable and timely ripenesse Our old age hee resembleth vnto the colde and troublesome winter season very fitly thereby expressing the cumbersome coldnesse of the latter end of our life Aristotle setteth downe onely three distinct ages child-hood floursshing man-age and old-age the first plentifully abounding with heat and moisture the middle age hauing the same two qualities of life aswell tempered as their nature possibly can be old age declining and swaruing from that good and moderate temper and by little and little decaying in both these qualities till at length they be both of them consumed Now that our life is thus often and thus in order changed in the temperature it will easily appeare if we consider the matter whereof we are all made and that is semen sanguis parentum both abounding with heat and moisture whereout ariseth this consequence that in the first entrance into life wee haue groatest store of those two liuely qualities which decay not but by length of time and that in our infancie wee are fullest of moisture our experience and sense teacheth vs for so we see infants flesh most fluid and almost of a waxen disposition ready to receiue impression of any light touch and as for heat Galen and Hippocrates both consent that man is most hot in the first day of his birth though by reason of the great store of moisture the heats power doth not so euidently appeere and because the heat without any the least intermission or pause worketh vpon our moisture and by little and little consumeth it it selfe also in time decaying who seeth not that the best part of our life euen necessarily is most cold and drie whence also this may be inferred that the space between the two extremes is most temperate forasmuch as Nature neuer passeth from one extreme vnto the other but by the meane and this is the warrant of Aristotles tripartite diuision of ages the seuerals are thus briefly defined Childhood is the first part and age of a mans life wherein their generation and growth is perfected and this lasteth for the most part vntill wee be fiue and twentie yeeres old and this age is proportionable vnto the Spring hot and moist for in this time our naturall heat supplieth greater store of vitall aerie moisture from the nourishment receiued than was spent of that our naturall store thence it is that within compasse of this time our bodies grow bigger and taller But according to the successiue decay and diminution of our heat and moisture it hath pleased antiquitie to point out certaine degrees of this first age the first is our infancie and that lasteth vntil the third or fourth yeere of our life and is alwaies best stored with moisture the next is our boy hood and that lasteth other fiue yeeres the third our budding and blossoming age when our cheekes and other more hidden parts begin to be clothed with that mossie exerement of haire which is proroged vntill the eighteenth yeere the last our youth lasting vntill we be fiue and twentie yeeres old and these are the parts of our growing age The next is our flourishing and middle age and this is when a man is come to the highest degree of perfection in the temper of his body continueth in that flourishing liuelinesse without any notorious decay or impairing his heat supplying the iust quantity of moisture from the nourishment which in the former action of it was consumed and this is compared to the Summer hot and drie or rather moderately moist drie onely in comparison of the former age not simplie lest the heat should too soone dissolue the body and this also hath it parts the first is our youth for so the penurie of our English toong warranteth me to call it when our growth is staied and our naturall heat beginneth to be most flourishing you may call it our Prime for then indeed are wee in our prime and most flourishing estate it lasteth from the fiue and twentieth to the fiue and thirtieth or fortieth yeere of our life the second part of our middle age is our Manhood the most constant and setled part of our life as hauing our lifequalities most firme and in greatest mediocritie wherein notwithstanding our naturall heat beginnes a little to decay and decline from its vigour yet so as it cannot by sense be perceiued and this lasteth oftentimes till we be fiftie yeeres old The last is old age when not onely the augmentatiue facultie of the soule ceaseth to increase the quantitie of our bodies but also by reason of our heats and moistures decay there is a manifest declining from our former lustinesse and liuelihood our bodily strength together with the weake and feeble operations of our soule in her functions sensiblie impaired And this last part of our life is resembled vnto Winter for that although it be in it self hot and moist as life consisteth wholly in these two qualities yet in comparison of the former ages and in regard of death vnto which it leadeth vs is accounted cold and this hath also its degrees or parts the first wherein our strength and heat are euidently impaired yet not so much but that there remaineth a will and readinesse to bee doing and this lasteth vsually from our fiftieth yeere vnto our three-score and fiue The second part of this last part of our life which they call decrepit old age is when our strength and heat is so farre decaied that not onely all abilitie is taken away but euen all willingnesse to the least strength and motion of our bodie and this is the conclusion and end of our life resembling death it selfe whose harbinger and fore-runner it is and so haue we seuen seuerall parts of our life comprising our Pubertatem and adolescentiam vnder one accordingly whereto the Astrologers haue assigned to euerie of them their peculiar predominant Planet our Infant age is allotted to the Moones milde and moist dominion cherishing vs with her sweet influence which she hath especially vpon moist bodies our Boy-hood Mercury hath charge ouer inclining vs to sportfulnesse talke and learning Venus guides our blossomming lustfull age our youthfull prime by the Sunnes liuely operation is lifted vp from base delights to a loftier and more man like resolution and liuelinesse Mars the sterne god of warre hath the precincts of his dominion limited within compasse of our man-age adding courage to our liuelihood and whetting our otherwise dull spirits vnto a more ventrous boldnesse in quarrelling combats Old age from Iupiter receiueth granitie and staiednesse Decrepit crooked age from the angrie aspect of drie Saturne sucketh the poisonous infirmities of crasie sicknesse and waiward pettishnesse and this is briefly the summarie explication of the differences of mans ages and the causes of this distinction together with those
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
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