The Bible testifies to the frequency of old age in ancient times and to the complete preservation of the faculties in the aged. It also contains some references that may be interpreted as instances of the instinct of death. I may take its account of the death of some of the patriarchs. “And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years. Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and _full of years_.”[330] “And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years. And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and _full of days_: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.”[331] “After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, even four generations. So Job died, being old and _full of days_.”[332] It is probable that the phrase “old and full of days,” which sounds strange in our ears, simply refers to the instinct of death, developed in well preserved old men who had attained ages of from 140 to 180 years.[333] The Biblical phrase is not merely a commonplace phrase applied to the death of celebrities for the references to deaths of other persons were put in different language. “And these are the years of the life of Ishmael, an hundred and thirty and seven years: and he gave up the ghost and died; and was gathered unto his people.”[334] “And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years.”[335] “And Aaron was an hundred and twenty and three years old when he died in Mount Hor.”[336] “And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.”[337] In only one of these later cases had the individual reached the age of one hundred and forty years, at which age, apparently, the instinct of natural death appeared.