Page:An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798).djvu/263

 in superseding the necessity of this species of rest.

There is certainly a sufficiently marked difference in the various characters of which we have some knowledge, relative to the energies of their minds, their benevolent pursuits, &c. to enable us to judge, whether the operations of intellect have any decided effect in prolonging the duration of human life. It is certain, that no decided effect of this kind has yet been observed. Though no attention of any kind, has ever produced such an effect, as could be construed into the smallest semblance of an approach towards immortality; yet of the two, a certain attention to the body, seems to have more effect in this respect, than an attention to the mind. The man who takes his temperate meals, and his bodily exercise, with scrupulous