stones, and such like things, to the end that he might be acquainted with Natures Secrets, but especially to attaine the knowledge howe to lengthen the life, boasteth of himselfe that he liued a thousande and fiue and twentie yeares. And the possibilitie of the prolongation of life, is hereby confirmed, because the soule is naturally immortall, and able not to die: for euen after it had bin polluted with sinne, it was able to liue about a thousande yeares, and afterwardes by little and little the length of life was abbreuiated and waxed shorter. Now this abbreueation must needes bee accidentall, & therefore it may either in the whole or in parte bee prolonged. And if we will seeke out the accidentall cause of this corruption, we shall finde that it proceedeth not from the heauen, nor anie thing else, but for lacke of a due regiment of health. For in this age of ours, the fathers are corrupted, and therefore begette Sonnes of a corrupt complexion and composition, and theyr Sonnes for the same cause doo corrupt themselues, and this corruption descendeth from the fathers into the Sons, so long, till at the last, the shortnes of life doth continually preuaile, as it appeareth this day. Neuerthelesse, it cannot hence be necessarily inferred, that life shall alwayes bee shortned, because there is a time appoynted for humane things, and for the most, what men liue seuentie yeares, and the rest of theyr dayes are altogether labour and sorrow. But there may a remedie bee founde out for the particular corruption of euery man, that is to say, if euerie one for his parte from his youth vpwarde, will exercise a perfect gouernment of health, which consisteth in meate and drinke, in sleepe and watchfulnesse, in motion and rest, in euacuation and constriction, in the ayre and in the disposition of the minde: for if anie man would obserue this manner of gouernment from his natiuitie, he should liue as long as his nature (which he receiued of his parents) would permit him, and be brought to the farthest end of that nature falne from originall iustice: but this he can no way passe: for this regiment affoordeth no remedie against the auncient corruption of parents. Yet it is impossible that a man should with such moderation carrie himselfe in all these thinges, as the rule of health requireth: and therefore it is of necessitie that the abbreuiation and shortning of our dayes should spring from this head also, and not onely from the corruption of our parents. But the science of Physicke doth sufficiently prescribe and determine this maner of regiment: though neither rich nor poore, learned nor vnlearned, no not euen the Physitions themselues (howe absolute so euer they bee) are able indifferently to obserue these things in themselues, nor in other men. Notwithstanding, Nature fayleth not in things necessarie, nor Art beeing perfect and compact, yea rather it is able to breake out against accidentall passions, and either wholy or in part to abolish them.