me infirm and die young. Nor does the Pleasure
of Taste last long, it hardly begins but 'tis gone and past; the more one
eats, the more one may, and the Distempers which it brings along with it,
last us to our Graves.

Now should not a sober Man be very well satisfied when he is at Table,
upon the Assurance, that as often as he rises from it, what he eats will
do him no harm: Who then would not perfectly enjoy the Pleasures of this
mortal Life so perfectly? Who will not court and win Sobriety, which is so
grateful to God, as being the Guardian to Virtue, and irreconcileable
Enemy to Vice.

Surely the Example of this wise and good Man deserves our Imitation, that
since old Age may be made so useful and pleasant to Men, I should have
fail'd in Point of Charity to inform Mankind by what Methods they might
prolong their Days.

A great Assistant to that of Sobriety, and which is highly conducive to
the Preservation of the whole Man, is to renew with us that habitual and
beneficial Custom of the Antients in promoting _Exercise_, as one great
Instrument to the Conservation of Health, and which no one can deny who
has given himself the Experience of a Trial.

That it promotes the Digestion, raises the Spirits, refreshes the Mind,
and that it strengthens and relieves the whole Man, is scarce disputed by
any; but that it should prove curative in some particular Distempers, and
that too when scarce any thing else will prevail, seems to obtain little
Credit with most People, who though they will give the Physician the
hearing when he recommends the Use of Rideing, or any other Sort of
Exercise, yet at the Bottom, look upon it as a forlorn Method, and rather
the Effects of his Inability to relieve them, than a Belief that there is
any great Matter in what he advises: Thus by a negligent Diffidence they
deceive themselves and let slip the golden Opportunities of recovering by
a diligent Struggle what could not be cur'd by the Use of Medicine alone.

But to give you a just and rational Idea of its Power of moving and
actuating upon the Body, let us consider the whole human System as a
Compound of Tubes and Glands, or to use a more rustick Phrase, a Bundle of
Pipes and Strainers, fitted to one another after so wonderful a Manner as
to make a proper Engine for the Soul to work with. This Description does
not only comprehend the Bowels, Bones, Tendons, Veins, Nerves, and
Arteries, but every Muscle and every Ligature, which is a Compo