The Secret of Long Life. (Henry S. King.)—Mr. Mortimer Collins—
for the authorship of this volume, though not expressly stated, is implied —does not give us much satisfaction. " Enough," said Rassolas to Imlac ; "you have convinced me that no man can be a poet." Mr. Collins has- convinced us that no man can live long,—that is, if he tries to do so, though he may do so in spite of himself and of circumstances. For what, according to this latest authority, is a man to do who would live long He must live in a village, modelled into a sort of conservative phalanstery ; he must eat and drink good things and in season, neither too much, nor too littlo,—a groat potable made of this last ; he must not be a slave of times and seasons, but get up and go to bed when the humour takes him ; he must not work too hard, but must "laze " judici- ously ; he must marry a " marriage of completion, " being himself not lose than thirty years of age, and taking a wife not younger than twenty- five ; but stay; to put the mattor more properly, his parents must have married in this moon abla fashion, a condition which takes the matter out of the hands of some unfortunate aspirants after longevity altogether : he must be a moderate Tory ; in fact ho must bo and do a number of things which most of us cannot or will not be and do. But if reading a very pleasant little book which just stirs up a moderato amount of com- bativeness as we read, and which is always, whether it deal in paradox or earnest, cheery, genial, scholarly, if this will do something, as it doubt- less will, towards prolonging one's life, then we owe our thanks to Mr._ Collins. Among many good things, we may note for special praise the remarks on "laziness." They are admirable, and express our own pro- foundest convictions. For ourselves, we _distrust a statesman who amuses himself in his holidays by cutting down trees. Some day he will cut down a tree which we shall all miss.
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