be stabbed by the spit. Nature never designed us to live well, and
continue well; the stomach is too weak a vessel to be richly and deeply
laden. Perhaps more injury is done by eating than by drinking; one is a
secret, the other an open enemy: the secret is always supposed the most
dangerous. Drinking attacks by assault, but eating by sap: luxury is
seldom visited by old age. The best antidote yet discovered against this
kind of slow poison is exercise; but the advantages of elevation, air,
and water, on one hand, and disadvantages of crowd, smoke, and effluvia
on the other, are trifles compared to intemperance.

We have a fourth class, and with these I shall shut up the clock. If
this valuable machine comes finished from the hand of nature; if the
rough blasts of fortune only attack the outward case, without affecting
the internal works, and if reason conduces the piece, it may move on,
with a calm, steady, and uninterrupted pace to a great extent of years,
'till time only annihilates the motion.

I personally know amongst us a Mrs. Dallaway, aged near 90; George
Davis, 85; John Baddally, Esq; and his two brothers, all between 80 and
and 90; Mrs. Allen, 92; Mrs. Silk, 84; John Burbury, 84; Thomas Rutter,
88; Elizabeth Bentley, 88; John Harrison and his wife, one 86, the other
88; Mrs. Floyd, 87; Elizabeth Simms, 88; Sarah Aston, 98; Isaac Spooner,
Esq; 89; Joseph Scott, Esq; 94; all at this day, January 9, 1780, I
believe enjoy health and capacity. This is not designed as a complete
list of the aged, but of such only as immediately occur to memory. I
also knew a John England who died at the age of 89; Hugh Vincent, 94;
John Pitt, 100; George Bridgens, 103; Mrs. More, 104. An old fellow
assured me he had kept the market 77 years: he kept it for several years
after to my knowledge. At 90 he was attacked by an acute disorder, but,
fortunately for himself, being too poor to purchase medical assistance,