that, mostly, when there is no work or no incitement to it. There is
always joy and happiness in work and in doing one's duty.

It is then the normal condition to wish to live, and a most abnormal one
to wish to die; and with many there is even a further aspiration, and
that is to prolong a life which, with all its drawbacks, is to so many a
desirable state of things.

Examples of rare longevity are carefully treasured up and even placed on
record. As whenever a human being is carried away, causes from which we
are supposed to be free, or against which we take precautions, are
complacently sought for, so instances of longevity are studied to
discover what habits and manners, what system of diet, or conduct, and
which environing circumstances, have most tended to ensure such a
result.

Numerous treatises have been written on the subject, both in this
country and on the continent; but it cannot be said that the result has
been eminently satisfactory. When carefully inquired into, it has been
found that the most contradictory state of things has been in existence.
It is not always to the strong that long life is given, nor is such, as
often supposed, hereditary. Riches and the comforts and luxuries they
place at man's disposal no more conduce to long life than poverty. Even
moderation and temperance, so universally admitted as essentials to
health and long life, are found to have their exceptions in
well-attested cases of prolongation of life with the luxurious and
self-indulgent and even in the intemperate and the inebriate. Strange to
say, even health is not always conducive to long life. There is a common
proverb (and most proverbs are founded upon experience) about creaking
hinges, and so it is that people always ailing have been known to live