If we judge from the accounts of Lucian we must form a high idea
of the great age of the Seres, or ancient Chinese. Lucian
ascribes this longevity to their habit of drinking excessive
quantities of water.
Among the Greeks we find several instances of great age in men of
prominence. Hippocrates divided life into seven periods, living
himself beyond the century mark. Aristotle made three
divisions,--the growing period, the stationary period, and the
period of decline. Solon made ten divisions of life, and Varro
made five. Ovid ingeniously compares life to the four seasons.
Epimenides of Crete is said to have lived one hundred and
fifty-seven years, the last fifty-seven of which he slept in a
cavern at night. Gorgias, a teacher, lived to one hundred and
eight; Democritus, a naturalist, attained one hundred and nine;
Zeno, the founder of the Stoics, lived to one hundred; and
Diogenes, the frugal and slovenly, reached ninety years. Despite
his life of exposure, Hippocrates lived to one hundred and nine;
and Galen, the prince of physicians after him, who was naturally
of a feeble constitution, lived past eighty, and few of the
followers of his system of medicine, which stood for thirteen
centuries, surpassed him in point of age.
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