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to all, the gratification arising from the indulgence of these natural appetites, differs greatly in degree, even in health, in different individuals. And to this diversity of palate it is probably owing, that a first-rate cook is nearly as rare as a first-rate musician or painter; neither does perfection of taste lead necessarily to culpable indulgence; but, on the contrary, it is calculated, under good regulation and culture, to improve the wholesomeness equally with the piquancy of our food. By those, in fact, who know the difference between the repast of an Esquimaux, and that of an Epicure, such as the late Prince of Benevento, it will readily be admitted that there is no sense or faculty with which man has been graciously endowed, for the maintenance of life, or the pleasurable enjoyment of his animal existence, which has a wider range than that which is subservient to the palate. Abernethy was well aware of this, and used to speak of man as "par excellence" a cooking animal. But he likewise knew well that this salutary propensity of his nature was apt to be greatly abused; and he was such a warm admirer of Lewis Cornaro's "Sure and certain Methods of attaining a Long and Healthful Life," that he seldom allowed a course of lectures to pass without some allusion to that noble Venetian. But this is so interesting a subject that I must pursue it beyond the limits of Mr. Abernethy's lecture-room.

CHAPTER III.

CONTAINING A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF LEWIS CORNARO, THE VENETIAN NOBLEMAN WHOSE HEALTH WAS RESTORED BY DIET AND REGIMEN, AND LIFE PROLONGED TO NEARLY ONE HUNDRED YEARS.

LEWIS CORNARO.

The old Venetian knew right well

The story of his life to tell;

To show how, living, he was dying;

And how, by better rules applying,

A long and happy life may be

The road to immortality.

Health and content on earth be given,
And everlasting bliss in heaven.

"WHEN patients apply to me," Mr. Abernethy used to say, "I often offend them by telling them they have their health in their own keeping. If a man were to do as Cornaro did, he would be rewarded by a long and happy life. Cornaro was given over by his physicians, at the age of thirty-five; he saw that there was not the least chance of recovery, if he continued to swallow the trash they were in the habit of giving him, and that there was no good in putting food into his stomach, if his stomach. could not digest it. So,' said he, I dropt the plan of my

physicians, and adopted a regimen of my own.' Now, what I propose as a diet, is Cornaro's diet, and it is no fanciful system. The diet should always be of a moderate quantity, it should not be wholly vegetable or animal, but it ought to be of a nutritive kind."

What Cornaro tells us himself is, that at the age of thirtyfive or forty, he had no hopes of finding any other end of his distempers than what should end his life too. "The best physicians in Italy made use of all their skill for my recovery, but without success. At last, when they quite despaired of me, they told me that they knew only of one remedy that could cure me, if I had resolution enough to undertake and continue it; to wit, a sober and regular life, which they exhorted me to live the remainder of my days, assuring me, that if intemperance had brought so many distempers, it was only temperance could free me from them." Upon this hint he acted; wisely determining to enter upon an entirely new course of life. The good effects were soon apparent, insomuch that, in no long time he perfectly regained his health and strength, and eventually lived to the advanced age of a hundred years, retaining to the last, that serenity of mind and soundness of intellect, which enabled him, for more than half a century, to enter into the purest enjoyments of life, and greatly to improve his own patrimonial estate, whilst he was rendering the most essential service to his friends and country.

"The advice, my physicians gave me, was to eat nothing but what was good and easy of digestion, and that in small

quantity; and I endeavoured accordingly to ascertain what food was proper for me; being minded to try, whether the proverb were true, which says what delights the palate, cannot but be good for the heart.' I found it to be false, and more calculated to promote sensuality than temperance; and I thenceforward chose such wines and meats as agreed with my constitution, making it an invariable rule to rise from table with an appetite to eat more if I pleased." "Besides my precautions with regard to diet, I have been careful to avoid exposure to unwholesome air, to violent winds, or to extremes of heat and cold; and, above all, to bring my passions, which were naturally unruly, into the subjection of right reason."

The only interruption to the uniform tenour of that excellent health which Cornaro's well-regulated system of living enabled him to maintain, arose either from accident, such as the upsetting of his coach when he was seventy years old, or from his yielding, upon one occasion, to the importunity of his friends, and making some addition to his diet. They thought," to use his own words,

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* There is a very commonly received notion which requires, at least, considerable qualification, namely, that all the harm arises from quantity, and that the quality of our diet matters but little. Now, the utmost latitude that can be allowed to such a maxim is--that it is safer to eat a moderate quantity of curiously concocted, and highly seasoned viands, than to eat even food of easy digestion like a glutton. But there are many substances exceedingly palatable, yet so indigestible, that very small quantities are capable of doing great mischief. It can never be a matter of trivial importance to our health, whether the materials which go to the supply, or the repair of our bodily frames, are of a nature to be well and readily digested, and thereby fitted for their destined purpose, or other. wise.

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"that I ate too little for one of my years; that I ought not only to support nature, but to increase the vigour of it, by increased sustenance. It was in vain for me to represent to them that nature is content with little; that this little had preserved me so long in health that custom was become a second nature to me; and that it was more reasonable, since natural heat abates as we grow older, that I should likewise abridge my allowance of diet. To add greater force to my opinion, I mentioned to them the proverb, 'he that eats little, eats much,'* and another, which says, 'what one leaves at a meal, does more good than what one has eaten ;' but all I could say was to no purpose, so that, wearied with their importunities, I was forced to submit. Having before been used to take twelve ounces in bread, soups, yolks of eggs, and meat, I increased it to fourteen ounces a day; and instead of drinking fourteen ounces of wine, I added two ounces and made it sixteen."+

* How different this from the advice which Coleridge received from his German friend at Ratzeburg. "Eat slowly, and you will be able to eat the more." Yet, there is truth in each maxim; the one emanating from the sty of Epicurus; the other from the Salernian School.-See " Early Years," Vol. I., p. 126.

Many are the instances which have fallen under my own observation of health restored, and life prolonged, by a change of condition from affluence to narrow circumstances, and, in consequence, from full living to spare diet. Moreover, it is not true, that much food is required in old age. I very lately entered the cottage of an old woman, who, at the verge of threescore years and ten, was busily engaged at her spinning wheel. She was the sole occupant of a neat little cottage, which, she told me, she held rent free; but I found that her utmost earnings did not exceed two-pence a-day, for which she was nevertheless thankful. Her wheel was wearing out, and she seemed fully aware that the fate of spinning wheels, such as hers, which she had twirled for nearly sixty years, was fully determined by that modern monster, the Spinning Jenny! In better days

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