nant of force, an approved reason, and sober conduct.
"Another motive equally impels certain old men to dangerous excesses; it is the example of aged men who, in reality or in appearance, preserve the faculties that age always destroys. So they recall them ; they quote them with complaisance, with a sort of inward satisfaction, dis- posed, as they are, to reckon themselves in this category of the predestinated. Thus, the Marechal d' Estrees was married for the third time at the age of ninety-one, and married, say they, 'very seriously/ The Duke of Lauzun lived a long time after having indulged in excesses of every kind. The Marechal de Richelieu was married to Madame de Roth at the age of eighty-four, and they add, 'with im- punity/ Then how can we believe what Bacon says, that the debauches of youth are conjurations against age, and that one pays dearly in the evening for the follies of the morning ?
"You see that it is not always thus, and the gay old fellow who thinks himself rejuvenated by some desires hidden beneath the ashes, is delighted to cite such exam- ples. But what signify certain isolated and assuredly very rare facts ? Ought one to govern himself by such examples unless he also has received from nature one of those excep- tional constitutions, of which the erotic salaciousness ends only with life ? It would be a very fatal mistake !"^
Besides the numerous evils which old men produce by the inconsiderate indulgence in sexual pleasures, it should be understood that sudden death is sometimes the immedi- ate consequence, by hemorrhage of the brain (apoplexy) or rupture of large blood-vessels. These accidents happen as the consequence of a violent and undue emotion, accel- erating the pulsations of the heart, or of efforts which, for the moment, suspend respiration.
