te degrees of abstinence
would not have the same effect upon other men, as they had upon Atticus;
who, weary of his life as well as his physicians by long and cruel pains
of a dropsical gout, and despairing of any cure, resolved by degrees to
starve himself to death; and went so far, that the physicians found he
had ended his disease instead of his life."

Of all the methods advocated, possibly one of the most universally
recognized is joyousness,--a hopeful attitude toward life, a cheerful,
kindly relationship with one's kind.

According to Galen, AEsculapius wrote comic songs to promote circulation
in his patients.

"A physician," says Hippocrates, "should have a certain ready wit, for
sadness hinders both the well and the sick."

We know, too, that Apollo was not only the god of music and poetry but
also of medicine. The poet, John Armstrong, has explained this:

"Music exalts each joy, allays each grief,
Expels disease, softens every pain;
And hence the wise of Ancient days adored
One power of physic, melody and song."

Sir Charles Clark, one of the greatest physicians of modern times,
exercised a most exhilarating influence over his patients by his
cheerfulness and jollity. It was probably one of the chief means of his
wonderful success.

"Cheerfulness," says Sir John Byles, "is eminently conducive to health
both in body and mind."

A recent writer says of Professor Charles Eliot Norton that he was "not
of a rugged constitution, yet he did an enormous amount of work and
lived to a beautiful old age." This is attributed to the fact that he
was never "blue." The cheerful kindliness of his face, his genial smile
and kind words were sources of great inspiration to me when a teacher at
Harvard, and to all who met him.

The more we investigate the theories of long life the more do we become
impressed with a universal longing for a length of days. We find a deep,
underlying instinct "that men do not live out half their days."
Everywhere, too, we find a certain expectation of "finding the fountain
of youth," a hope in some way to conquer sickness and death.

This desire is normal and natural. It may, sometime in future history,
be realized.

As we examine these theories we find, however wild they may seem at
first, certain common sense views at the heart of all of them. No one
need make a hobby of any one of them. Temperance, regularity, repose,
patience, and above all, cheerfulness, do not e