The Man Who Lived to be a Hundred Because he Wanted to.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 1471, 3 October 1885, Page 5 (Supplement)

The Man Who Lived to be a Hundred Because he Wanted to.

Cornaro's regimun— which cpnsis^ ted of eggs ' £onp, bread, 'pan ckkes ••» and giicb/like food with wine— -was, as he tells i--.us," intended f.6r himselfa|pn.e.Ali people should live temr I pprnteiyj but. the "temperance of one manis the 'excess of another. : G»r-. naro's m§Mrpd is the simi>l* one thateach man shoiald find out for himself what is. the suitable quantity of food and drink {for himself,. and then live .! accordingly^ Tho cliarm of Ccrnaro's narrative consists m iho garrulous naivete with whicji he sets forth his simple creed and practice. Italy, he sayn. Was suffering froni three great evils : first, from flattery .and«. ceremonies; second, from the effect of the Lutheran doctrines; third, trpintiebanchery. These threo evilsv^ :or •: rather. ■" cruel niousters of human; ?life," have doi^royed respef;tiv.oly f social sincerity the religion of the soul: : third, the heal th -pf the body. ' Thpy first two plagues he leaves to be '* dealt with :by some who will lianishthiem from the world ; the third he undertakes V.40 extirpate himself, being convinced that Italy, before his death, will return to her former "fair and holy manners."^ To this i end he gives his p wii practice- as an example tri > toe .foHowed, at least m its aa m and spirit, tiis daily allowance of \vine Was fourteen'; ounces. ' On one occasion, after he had slightly increased -the . qusiutities, he became m a : fe\y days'.'cholHric and melancholy^" and felliirito a violent fever,' from wbiciv he only recovered by returning to his former n j guneni ? He never ate or drank to r.iio extent of his appetite r; j avpided extreme^ of heat and cold ;; was- pitroful to hkye sufficient sleeps To /kVep ciear- of grief, melancholy, hatred and ;of perturbations of tlie ! mind was' ialso aii^ssential part of his system, though teniperance m eawngi and drinking Will iio much to coiintpract • meritail troubles,, as well as to neutmlise the efEeccs ofbodily hardships., r Once • w hen: po werfi»l enemies bioright a suit against him he "|tept his equan inity, and won :his case iiithe end, while- hi^ brother,' who Jiad led 'an:irr«»ularlite, died of an«eVy, while the case was still on. If men weie but temperate as lie; was hinVself, they would live to be^ a huridre'l years old.: JFle biHiselfvin^ tpndijd-totlo so, to di«at last, not-pf dispase, but of *i pura resQlux|6ne;'' :: If he had had a good . constitution to start with ho Would reach oiie him >dred and twenty years instead of only one hundred. AETe did, m .fact,, die very nen rly at the age of one h iindred , if he did not surpass it. He., is; sure that, having led a life pleasing God, he will, by his mercy, enjoy the heavenly life after ;; death ..v- \D"ntil, he! adopted tho tempet ate life he never "knew that -thd world was fair." Th« temperate. :■". fanno 1 br utto il moij'do." ]Biven the deaths pfrela tipns and friends xroiibleid him little, sHcalm and equable had his temper j beiihme^ These and p*her doctrines 1 ta the s» me ejffecthe published m his Jirsb treatis«V r written wlum» he vfrw at tjie age of eighty-three ; three years later, lipfol lowed it up by a second, the v Cbrapendio della Vita Spbria>" five yi»a«^ later still he published athird; and, finally,, at the age of ninety -fi ve, he brought put his " Loving Exhortation," urging his readers td i do as he had done; and to en|oy ♦the happiness he had found. Ifpt a little of it, he tells us, was tli'i'o to the, fact that many of them had followed his advicei— Saturday Bedew. :