[49]. Eironnach; Notes and Queries, No. 215.
LONGEVITY AND DIET.
It may now be as well to glance at the modes of living of a few of the patriarchal folks. Cornaro, who is one of the penates of healthful longevity, was born at Venice in 1464, of a noble family. In early life he injured his health by intemperance, and by indulging his propensity to anger; but he succeeded in acquiring such a command over himself, and in adopting such a system of temperance, as to recover his health and vigour, and to enjoy life to an extreme old age. At 83 he wrote a comedy “abounding with innocent mirth and pleasant jests.” At 86 he wrote: “I contrive to spend every hour with the greatest delight and pleasure.” He was fond of literature and the conversation of men of sense and good manners, and his principal delight was to be of service to others. Every year he travelled, visited architects, painters, sculptors, musicians, and husbandmen; and he was especially fond of natural scenery. “Being freed, by God’s grace, from the perturbations of the mind and the infirmities of the body,” he no longer experienced any of those contrary emotions which torment a number of young men, and many old ones destitute of strength and health, and every other blessing. His diet consisted of bread, meat, eggs, and soup, not exceeding in the day three-quarters of a pound of food, and a pint of new wine. He passed with health and comfort beyond his hundredth year; and at Padua, in 1566, sitting in his arm-chair, he died, as he had lived for his last threescore years, exempt from pain and suffering.
Thomas Parr[[50]] was an early riser. Taylor, the Water-poet, quaintly sings of his mode of living:
Good wholesome labour was his exercise,
Down with the lamb, and with the lark would rise;
In wise and toiling sweat he spent the day,
And to his team he whistled time away;
The cock his night-clock, and till day was done,