Another satisfaction, without the least mixture of alloy, I at the same time enjoyed, was to think, that age and experience are sufficient to make a man learned, who without them would know nothing; nor is it surprizing they should, since length of days is the foundation of true knowledge. Accordingly, it was by means of it alone I discovered their conclusion to be false. Thus, you see, my lord, how apt men are to deceive themselves in their judgement of things, when such judgement is not built upon a solid foundation. And, therefore, to undeceive them, and set them right, I made answer, that their conclusion was false, as I should actually convince them by proving, that the happiness I enjoyed was not confined to me, but common to all mankind, and that every man might equally enjoy it; since I was but a mere mortal, composed, like all others, of the four elements; and endued, besides existence and life, with rational and intellectual faculties, which are common to all men. For it has pleased the Almighty to bestow on his favourite creature man these extraordinary blessings and favours above other animals, which enjoy only the sensible perceptions; in order such blessings and favours my be the means of keeping him long in good health; so that length of days is a universal favour granted by the Deity, and not by nature and the stars. But man being in his youthful days more of the sensual, than of the rational animal, is apt to yield to sensual impressions; and, when he afterwards arrives at the age of forty or fifty, he ought to consider, that he has attained the noon of life, by the vigour of his youth, and a good tone of stomach; natural blessings, which favoured him in ascending the hill; but that he must now think of going down, and approaching the grave, with a heavy weight of years on his back; and that old age is the reverse of youth, as much as order is the reverse of disorder. Hence it is requisite he should alter his mode of life in regard to the articles of eating and drinking, on which health and longevity depend. And as the first part of his life was sensual and irregular, the second should be the reverse; since nothing can subsist without order, especially the life of man, irregularity being without all doubt prejudicial, and regularity advantageous to the human species.