HOW TO PROLONG LIFE.
The following should be carefully perused especially by the young. Are there any among you my young friends, who desire to preserve your health and cheerfulness through life, and at length arrive at a good old age? If so listen to what I am about to tell you.
A considerable time ago I read in one of the newspapers of the day, that a man had died near London at the advanced age of 110 years, that he had never been ill, and that he had maintained through life, a cheerful, happy temperament. I wrote immediately to London to know if in the man’s treatment of himself there had been any peculiarity which had rendered his life lengthened and so happy, and the answer I received was as follows:
“He was unusually kind and obliging to every body; he quarreled with no one; he ate and drank merely that he might not suffer from hunger or thirst and never beyond what necessity required; from his earliest youth he never allowed himself to be unemployed; these were the only means he used.”
I took a note of this in a little book where I generally write all that I am anxious to remember, and very soon afterwards I observed in another paper that a woman had died near Stockholm at 115 years of age; that she never was ill, and was always of a contented disposition. I immediately wrote to Stockholm to learn what means the old woman had used for preserving her health, and now read the answer:
“She always had a great love of cleanliness, and in the daily habit of washing her face, hands and feet in cold water, and as often as opportunity offered she bathed in the same.—She never ate or drank any delicacies or sweet-meats, seldom coffee, seldom tea, and never wine.”
Of these likewise I took a note in my little book. Sometime after this I read that near St. Petersburg, a man died who had enjoyed good health until he was 120 years old. Again I took my pen and wrote to St. Petersburg, and here is the answer:
“He was an early riser, and never slept beyond seven hours at a time; he never was idle; he employed himself chiefly in the open air, and particularly in his garden; whether he walked or sat in his chair he never permitted himself to sit awry or in a bent posture, but was always perfectly straight. The luxurious and effeminate habits of citizens he held in contempt.”
After having read all this from my little book I said to myself: “you will be a foolish man indeed not to profit by the example and experience of these old people.” I then wrote out all that I had been able to discover about these happy old people upon a card, which I suspended over my writing desk, so that I might always have it before my eyes to remind me what to do, and from what I should refrain. Every morning and evening I read over the contents of my card and obliged myself to conform to its rules.
And now my dear young readers, I can assure you on the word of an honest man, that I am much happier and in better health than I used to be. Formerly I had the headache every day and now I suffer scarcely once in three or four months. Before I began these rules I hardly dare to venture out in the rain or snow without catching cold. In former times a walk of half an hour’s length fatigued and exhausted me, now I walk miles without weariness. Imagine then the happiness I experience, for there are few feelings so cheering to the spirits as those of constant good health and vigor. But, alas! there is something in which I cannot imitate these happy old people, and that is I have not been accustomed to all this from my youth. Oh! that I were young again that I might imitate them in all things; that I might be happy and long-lived as they were.
Little children who read this, you are the fortunate ones who are able to adopt in perfection this kind of life. What then prevents your living henceforward as healthful and happily as the old woman of Stockholm or as long and useful as the old men of London and St. Petersburg.